The Fight for Light
by Peldor
Summary: Mireille and Kirika try and heal after returning from the manor. A new faction of the Soldats fight to control Noir. Someone from Kikira's past, help from an unlikely source and... the final test? M/K more than just friends? Up to you.
1. Chapter 1 The Race Home

Notes:

Ok, this is my first published fanfic, really my first fanfic since I have never really written anything like this using a pre-existing story line as a base for a new story. I am still looking for a beta reader or readers so if you're interested drop me a line.

"Speaking"  
_'Internal first person'_  
**Written note or email**

Most of the story is written in first person with some third person thrown in. Any comments regarding POV usage, grammer, story structure, or just about anything else would be appreciated.

Disclaimer:

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**The Race Home**

_"Noir is just a name, but you will stand aside if you fear the heart of darkness."_

"Damn!" cursed Mireille as she dragged the now unconscious Kirika up the steep path another few steps before collapsing, "It's never easy."

_'__So far so good, no__ enemies__ yet__'_ thought Mireille, _'we probably killed most of the people that lived here'_. That problem was not weighing on her mind as much as just making it to the jeep. Looking down at her left arm she saw it was bleeding freely again, not a good sign, and Kirika's wound was still bleeding even through the packing she had put in the wound. Mireille bent over the young girl and put a finger to the side of her neck, her pulse was weak but steady, good.

_'Well it's no good sitting here'_ she thought looking up the path and seeing that there was another twenty meters to the top. "Come on partner, we need to get out of here so you can make me that tea" joked Mireille as she pushed off the wall and hooked an arm under Kirika and again started her slow assent.

In the jeep she had her I.F.A.K. (Individual First Aid Kit) that that she had picked up from one of her contacts, she knew it contained all the supplies she needed to patch both her and Kirika up long enough for them to get back to Paris and back to her doctor. As soon as she got Kirika next to the jeep she stumbled to the back and dug out the fibrin bandages and patched herself up, it only took a moment and she was back at her young partner's side.

"Kirika can you hear me?" she said gently, and waited a few moments with no response.

_'Probably for the better, this __would__ hurt a lot__ f she was awake__'_ she thought as she ripped the robe and removed the cloth packing from the gunshot wound. Taking quick appraisal of the wound she sprinkled on some quickclot and smoothed a fibrin bandage over it. She wanted to quickly check if her partner had any other life threatening injuries and unfastened the light robe she was wearing, what she saw shock her. Where there should have been smooth skin there were welts, burses, and unhealed cuts. Looking at the dreadful wounds a tear slipped down her cheek, it felt as cold as ice.

"What did they do to you Kirika" Mireille said as her breath hitched "How could they do this to you"

She closed the robe and bundled the young girl in a blanket and gently laid her in the passenger seat. Getting in the jeep she started back to Paris as fast as she could without jostling too much or attracting unwanted attention. Her arm was starting to go numb, she didn't know if it was from loss of blood or nerve damage, either way it was bad. Also she was starting to get tunnel vision, which she knew was from loss of blood.

_'__Dammit__dammit__dammit__'_ The Corsican was thinking, _'I hate taking the __stim__-injections, but right now it's my only option, if I don't I'm going to black out and run off the road.'_

"Well here goes" she scooped up one of the stim-injectors in her right hand and pressed it to the inside of her thigh. A quick "Click" a pinprick and it was done. Within seconds the drug took effect, the world came sharply into focus and the blinding pain went away.

Once she was back out of the mountains she called her doctor contact, one Dr. James Allen.

"James! This is Mireille Bouquet, I have an emergency I need help I don't care the cost I need you to save someone" she said in a rush, panic in her voice.

"Ok Mireille calm down, where are you, what's wrong?" asked James

Mireille forced herself to calm down and take a deep breath.

"About forty five minutes away, I have a friend with a gunshot wound to the abdomen with loss of blood, she is unconscious but stable."

"Ok, call me when you pull up to my house, I'll help you. Look don't worry Mireille just drive safe and get here Ok, I'll get everything ready. Wait what wa…." It seemed the doctor turned away from his phone and was talking to someone else for a few seconds "… and get the stretcher ready too. Mireille do you know your friends blood type… never mind, just drive and remember to call when you get close."

Mireille looked at the clock on the dash 1:24 a.m., it had been more than five hours since they had left the manor.

She reached over and checked Kirikas pulse again, it was getting weaker.

"Kirika, you stay with me dammit!" She sobbed, "You can't die, I saved you, I need you to live, I need you." She was crying now, tears streaming down her face without making a sound as drove to the villa on the outskirts of Paris.

* * *

The villa wasn't large by Mireilles' standards but it wasn't small either. She had remembered to call ahead and started to pull into the back near the guest house where she had gone previously when she got injured, but instead was flagged down by a woman near the side of the house. 

"Mireille Bouquet?" the woman asked.

"Yes"

"Pull up to the cellar doors over there." The woman pointed over to a small building attached to the rear of the house where they had a stretcher waiting.

She helped the woman load Kirika onto the stretcher best she could with her near useless left arm and the woman pushed her and Kirika into the small room with a lift in it. She called down to James that they were coming.

Mireille watched as the woman stripped the unconscious girl and James started an IV and heart monitor.

James looked up at Mireille and was shocked at the state she was in, both her outward appearance and the odd way she was moving. She was covered in dirt and dried blood, her clothing was torn and gone was the catlike grace that he had seen, even when she was wounded.

"Jesus, what the hell happened to you two…" thinking better of it "… I'm sorry, you don't need to tell me anything." He knew that people in Mireille's line of work paid him to not ask questions.

Mireille couldn't move, she was standing there and her vision started to dim and her thoughts got foggy '_I… I think the __stim__-shot just wore off'_ was what she wanted to say but all that came out was a groan.

"Lauren, see to Ms. Bouquet's wounds and see if we can treat her later after we stabilize the young girl" was James quick reaction after seeing Mireille waver on her feet.

Lauren quickly walked up to Mireille "What's wrong? Are you injured?" she quickly tried to support the dazed looking Corsican by slipping her shoulder under her left arm.

Mireille looked at the woman in front of her with blurry vision, _'Why is she talking to me? Why isn't she helping __Kirika__?' _she thought slowly. Just then the woman tried to support her by reaching under her left arm, pain shot into her like an electric current; it was too much for her to handle as her sight of the room went white with agony. She could hear herself scream in pain but even that seemed far away as she lost consciousness.

* * *

"Beep… beep… beep…"_'Why is the alarm clock going off?'_ thought Mireille _'I'm so tired, why __did I__ set it so early?' _ Just then she heard footsteps, and tensed up. Pain and the memory of what had happened washed over her mind. She opened her eyes and looked in the direction of the sounds and saw a woman leaning over Kirika who was in a hospital bed. She was checking some readouts and adjusted one of the IV's then looked over toward Mireille. 

"Oh, I see your awake" said the woman "how are you feeling, do you want some water?"

Mireille was thirsty and tried to say "yes please" but all that came out was a dry raspy cough. The woman brought her a glass anyway and Mireille cautiously sat up in her bed ignoring the throbbing in her left arm. She took the offered water and drank it down quickly to wet her parched throat.

Lauren was checking Mireilles' heart monitor as the young blond watched, she then pulled the light shirt off of the Corsicans' left arm and checked the dressing. She noticed that the blond had stopped looking at her and was staring at the young girl across the room.

"She's Ok for now, my name is Lauren. Both of you were in terrible condition when you got down here, it took quite a few hours of surgery to put you and your young friend back together." She told Mireille "we think that she is over the worst of the fever as well."

Mireille had many questions tumbling through her head but first she had to see Kirika with her own eyes, to see if she was really alright.

"Can I see her?" Mireille asked not taking her eyes off of her partner.

"Of course, but she's on some powerful painkillers and may not recognize you so please don't be surprised." Lauren said while gently helping Mireille to her feet.

Mireille slowly shuffled over to the bed that Kirika was laying motionless in. She looked at her partners face and saw that her eyes were dilated and half lidded. Her entire left side was swathed in heavy bandages and her right arm was in a sling. She looked down at the floor after seeing the extent of Kirika's injuries. She didn't like seeing her partner like this, so weak and defenseless. It brought back memories of that job in the Middle East when Kirika was wounded and … Mireille felt her eyes fill with tears just thinking about how selfish and cruel she was. How could she ever had said those things, making Kirika think that she was a burden, that she could just shoot her and run to save her own life.

"Kirika…" Mireille said softly and reached up to stroke her cheek, "Kirika can you hear me?"

_"__Kirika__…"_ Kirika thought heard Mireille's voice through the haze of drugs and pain, _"__Kirika__ can you hear me?"_ It was Mireille; she turned her head slowly to the sound of her voice. Yes, she could see familiar blond hair and blue eyes now; the Corsican had her fingertips brushing lightly against her cheek. Mireille was here, and for some reason that comforted her. She had been dreaming, or was it remembering? She couldn't sharpen her mind to recall exactly what she saw when she was sleeping but it was so painful, she hoped that it was just a nightmare and not her lost memories. She came back to the present and saw that Mireille was still looking at her. She tried to say something but couldn't get anything but a raspy sigh to come out. Then she saw that Mireilles eyes were filled with tears. Kirika squeezed her eyes shut, she was disgusted with herself, she felt so weak and so selfish making Mireille cry. Hadn't she caused Mireille enough pain, was pain and death all she was good for. Kirika tried to turn away from Mireille so that she could hide the shame she felt but even the slight contracting of her stomach muscles sent a wave of new pain through her and her mind spiraled back down into blackness, back into the painful nightmares, or were they memories?

Mireille saw Kirika's body twist slightly and then she let out a pained wheeze and fell into unconsciousness.

"What's wrong with her" she said in a panic "is she going to be ok?" Mireille was on the brink of tears.

"She's been through a lot, not only the bullet wound to her stomach but she had two broken ribs at the entry point" Lauren was explaining "we had to cut into her back to get the bullet out. Her right shoulder was dislocated and she also had lost a large amount of blood."

Lauren was personally amazed that they young girl had survived at all given the severity of her wounds.

"You weren't as bad off as your friend here but you had a straight through bullet wound on your left arm as well as a fractured wrist and sprained knee." Lauren was hesitant to mention that she had found amphetamines in her blood work but decided that she should say something "you also tested positive for meth in your blood work. I don't know if you're a user or not but please don't get her mixed up in whatever is going on."

Mireille could almost laugh at this woman trying to lecture her on drug use and not wanting Kirika to be involved in anything criminal.

James was walking in just as Lauren was talking to Mireille about not getting involved in drugs. He quickly strode over to the side of his wife.

"Lauren, honey, they aren't some spoiled rich kids that don't want the media to know about their accident" James explained "they are some of my more… interesting patents… please, leave them to rest." He said with an apologetic look at Mireille.

"I am sorry Ms. Bouquet, my wife has been taking care of you while I took a short nap. I was so tired after the fourteen hours it took me to mend both your wounds that I was thoroughly exhausted." James explained "It won't happen again I assure you. Lauren won't come down to bother you anymore".

Mireille looked at them both and saw that Lauren was getting a little pale and James was slightly tense.

"No problem at all..." Mireille said with some amusement "…think nothing of it. I was just going to ask your wife if I could move my bed over here near Kirika's, I think she would sleep better if I was near her."

As James obliged her and wheeled her bed next to Kirika's he wondered just what the relationship was between the two. He and never thought Mireille would be one to take a partner, she was always so cold. _'She's always been indifferent towards everyone, even towards me' _he thought. Even though he had saved her life once and patched her up a few times it didn't seem to make him a friend or even put him in her favor. On the other hand she was almost panicked when this young Kirika was wounded, so much so that she didn't even tell them about her own wounds. _'This is going to be something to think about'_ he thought to himself, _'I need to find out more about this situation, I have a feeling that I'm missing something important__'_

"Ms. Bouquet, you should really get some rest, you need not worry about your security" James told her confidently " I parked your jeep in the back barn and you came in late enough that I don't think anyone saw you, in any case while you are under my care I will protect you personally if it came down to it."

As he said this he moved his white coat aside slightly and Mireille saw that he was carrying a pistol in a cross draw holster. He smiled at her as he turned and started to walk out with is hand lightly pushing his wife ahead of him. She wasn't surprised but slightly taken that he would promise to protect them so fiercely without even knowing them.

_'Could he be with __Altena__ and the __Soldats__?'_ Mireille thought to herself _'no, he's been around for years, Uncle Claude had told me that he was a trustworthy contact__'_

Mireille shook her head_, 'I need sleep, I'll be no good to anyone if I'm dead on my feet'_ she thought as she slipped under the covers. She glanced over at Kirika and saw that she was twitching slightly as if she were having a dream and not a good one by the grimace on her face. She was reaching over to stroke her partner's cheek when she stopped _'what am I doing… god I've gone soft if I've been reduced to this. __Kirika__ is strong, she doesn't need my comfort, she's probably one of the world's best assassins. It's not like she's some little kid, I would be a fool to think that she needs someone to stroke her cheek and tell her that it's just a bad dream.' _With that she lay back on her bed and sleep overcame her almost immediately.

* * *

James was at his computer chatting with yet another one of his contacts trying to figure out what was going on. It had been almost three days since Mireille and her partner arrived at his door and still he had no idea what was happening. He had contacted some of his most trusted informants but still no one knew anything about what was going on. It was true, many of them knew Mireille Bouquet but none of them seemed to know what was going on. Of course he had been circumspect in his questioning; saying that she owed him a favor and he was trying to contact her to call it in but still no one knew where she was or what she was up to. His computer beeped and he opened the email: 

**Mireille Bouquet is in a precarious position; the people that are after her will want to ****either find her and**** kill her, or they may want to use her for their own purposes. James, please do not get involved and stop looking for her. If she comes to see you send her away immediately if you value your life, because once you get involved the only way out will be death.**

He looked at who had sent the email, an old war friend, and felt that he could trust what was said. James sighed and thought to himself _'Mireille what have you gotten yourself into, and you dragged me in as well.'_ He quickly sent off another email with more questions. A few minutes later another reply:

**James, Mireille Bouquet's precarious position rests on the fact that a cetin powerful organization believes that she and her partner are some kind of divine assassin team. Please do not underestimate ****their**** reach James, many people died by doing that and I want to save you from that. Please, don't dig any more into this; it can only lead to trouble.**

He needed to talk to Mireille; he needed to find out what was going on and why they were in so much danger. They say ignorance is bliss but it can also get you killed, no he amended, it can get you _and everyone that you ever cared about_ killed, _**very**_ quickly.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: 

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

Most of the story is written in first person with some third person thrown in. Any comments regarding POV usage, grammer, story structure, or just about anything else would be appreciated.

Got the second chapter out after only two hours of writing, I tried to re-write some scenes because they seemed to be worded wrong but couldn't think of a good alternate wording.

Mireille might seem a little OOC but I just assume that she would change after leaving the manor.

I took a few liberties on the story by making Kirika more wounded than she looked at the end of the series, but it seemed the perfect way to bring James and Lauren into the story. I have chapter 3 written but still need to go over it a few more times.

"Speaking"

_'Internal first person'_

**Written note or email**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**An Answer is Something You Have to Find Yourself**

* * *

It had been three days since they arrived in James' care and Mireille was starting to feel better. She had actually been able to get a decent night's rest since her bed was next to Kirika's and she was off of the stronger painkillers that fogged her mind. She was gingerly exploring all the sore spots on her body when James knocked lightly on the door and then let himself in.

"Mireille, you look radiant this morning" James teased.

Mireille knew this to be a lie, having seen herself in the mirror in the bathroom. She was cut, bruised and scraped from head to toe, as well as having twenty-seven stitches in one arm and a wrist brace on the other. At least her knee wasn't as bad as James had originally thought, just a light sprain so she could walk on it with just a brace.

"James, you lie horribly and good morning" Mireille smiled and looked back toward Kirika, her smile fading.

Kirika wasn't as fortunate; she couldn't even rise out of bed on her own and depended on powerful painkillers just to make it through her waking moments. Mireille didn't like that she didn't seem to be improving, worse yet the few times Mireille could talk to her she seemed to be slipping into a more and more depressed state. The young girl hardly spoke anymore and most conversations were reduced 'umm-hmm' and 'umm-uum'. Mireille found that it really bothered her that Kirika was closing herself off like this.

"Ms. Bouquet…" James brought her out of her dark thoughts and into the present. The look he was giving her was a serious look if she read him right.

_'Well'_ Mireille thought _'he just set the tone of the conversation to come'_ she knew that the tone was a formal one just by the way he was acting. This was going to be a business talk. She then had a horrifying thought _'what if __Kirika__ is getting worse… no, calm down, he would have told me'_

James ended her internal debate by speaking what was on his mind.

"Ms. Bouquet" he began again "I don't mean to pry but I had a bad feeling about what had happened to you so I did a little digging and discovered that you have a rather unsavory group of people after you." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "I have also heard that just by having you here puts my life as well as my wife's in danger" He waited to see her reaction.

Mireille erased all emotion from her face as she pulled into her cold assassins shell. She thought furiously about what the doctor might do, and then looked over at Kirika who was still staring blankly at the ceiling with the same glassy, half lidded eyes she had since she arrived. She didn't know what to do, she was completely at the mercy of this man, she wasn't armed, and in her current state she couldn't put up much of a fight. Her shoulders sagged down and she bowed her head knowing that she could do nothing. _'Talk to him'_ she thought to herself _'see what he wants, if he wanted to kill us he could have done that already. He must want to talk, he must want something.'_

James was watching for her reaction and saw her face go totally blank, devoid of all emotion, this alarmed him, and then he saw her shoulders slump down and was confused.

_'All I want to do is talk to her'_ he thought to himself as he saw the defeated look on her face _'god what does she think I'm going to do, throw her and her friend out on the street?'_

He took a step toward her, "Mireille, it's not as bad as all that" he said gently "I just want to know what I'm up against, that's all. It's going to be ok; you can stay here as long as it takes to heal. In fact I was thinking of putting you and Kirika in one of the guest rooms, once you got a little better, so you could get some fresh air and a view."

Relief washed over Mireille as she realized what James was telling her. He was offering her a place to live, a place to hide while they healed. All he wanted to know was what to watch out for, and what he was getting into. Then she thought, _'how much should I tell him, if I tell him about __Altena__ and the __Soldats__ it may just mark him for death' _she looked at him _'either way he's going to have a hard time of it. I should probably tell him at least who we really are and why the __Soldats__ want us dead, it might give him a better chance of Survival. Then again if I tell him about the __Soldats__ I might as well tell the whole story.' _

Mireille nodded toward the stairs and she followed the doctor up to the kitchen. Lauren was there with a kettle on the stove and two cups on the table.

"James dear, do you want Earl Grey or green tea?" She was asking over her shoulder as she peered into the cabinets over the counter. She turned and saw Mireille and her face lit up "Good morning Ms. Bouquet, you are looking much better. Would you like some tea as well?" the woman asked as she reached for another cup.

Mireille could only wonder how she could have been so lucky to come to this place. Many men in James' position would just start calling around to see who had the best price and sell both of them out. Instead, here he was giving her a place to stay, protection, and his wife was offering to make her tea. She marveled at how he and his wife could be so kind and still cater to the underworld like they did.

"Yes please" was Mireilles' unnecessary response, for Lauren had already set another place for her and pulled the chair out. As Mireille sat down Lauren poured the tea and James took a seat across from her. Lauren went back toward the kitchen and picked up a plate of small pastries then putting it on the table sat down.

"I want to apologize for what happened the night you arrived" Lauren said as she looked at Mireille, "I didn't know you were wounded when I grabbed your arm… I think you blacked out from the pain."

Mireille tried to think of what the woman was talking about _'blacked out because she...__',_ then she remembered. When they were helping Kirika her stim-shot had worn off, and Lauren had tried to support her by her left arm. Apologizing for such a trivial matter almost made her smile. These people were really too nice to be in this business.

"No problem I assure you" Mireille said in an amused tone "It could have been worse; I could have fallen over and hit the floor. That wouldn't have been very dignified, now would it?"

James chuckled, as he imagined her as a normal young woman. With everything the blond had been through and all the people she had killed, she still had a sense of humor. However, reality returned to him. She was not a normal young woman. She was an assassin, and according to his research, an exceptionally good assassin.

"Now, to continue our earlier conversation" James started "I don't mean to pry, but from my research I found out that you two young ladies are in quite a lot of trouble. When I told you that I would protect you I wasn't kidding, but it would be easier if I knew who was coming and what they were capable of."

Mireille glanced at Lauren and then back to James '_this is the part where they start to think me and __Kirika__ are monsters'_ she thought sadly. _'People like __Kirika__ and I just shouldn't have friends, they either end up dead or hating us when they find out what we are.'_ With that thought she breathed in deeply and collected her thoughts. _'Yes'_ she decided, _'they should know the whole story, and what the __Soldats__ are capable of.'_

"Well it all started when I went to Japan" she said, "on a pilgrimage to my past…"

* * *

To Mireilles' surprise the telling took quite some time, even with quite a few omissions. The thing that disturbed her most was recalling some of the cruel things she had said to Kikira. Just remembering had brought tears to her eyes. 

They had stayed silent for most of the story, which was only broken by the occasional refill of tea. James had asked a few questions here and there but had mostly just listened.

"So what you're telling me is…" said James after letting out a gusty sigh "…is that you are the two best assassins in the world, trained almost from birth by the Illuminati and before a ritual to bind… that other assassin to your friend, you showed up, spoiled the party, and you and Kirika ended up having to kill everyone to get out with your lives. Dose that about sum it up?" James was looking at her with a strangely unreadable expression.

Mireille nodded and gazed into her tea in order to avoid James' eyes. She realized when put that way the story sounded preposterous. _'Did all of that really happen?'_ she thought to herself _'the whole thing sounds so insane.'_ She glanced up at James to gauge his reaction, but he was still blank.

James cleared his throat "Just one more question Mireille" he asked quietly "what do they call you? What do they call this divine assassin team?" He thought he knew already, he just hoped he was wrong, because if he was right the two in his care were exceptionally dangerous.

"Noir" Mireille whispered quietly.

Even as the name left her lips, James saw her face change. Where there were once beautiful blue eyes there was only cold indifference, those eyes seemed to look through him as if she was staring at something far away…

"Noir…" she said again, her voice flat and devoid of all emotion "It is the name of an ancient fate. Two maidens who govern death. The peace of the newly born, their black hands protect. To ward the darkness from nursing babes, their black robes serve as shields. To the depths of Hell's fire, their black souls lure the lost children." She finished in an expressionless detached voice.

James had thought the story might have been a little over embellished when she was telling it, but now looking into those eyes... They were deep, cold and blue, but he could see the darkness in them, darker than the blackest night. He had been a Marine before he trained to be a doctor and knew about death, about killing people. He had even gone to war and had never seen anyone look as dangerous Mireille was now; he knew that right now, she could kill without hesitation, without remorse, without thinking. He felt dread wash over him like an icy wave. He glanced at his wife without moving and found the color had drained from her and her hands were shaking slightly. He knew that if either of them did anything that could be perceived as a threat they would be dead, Mireille would simply kill them without a second thought.

_'Oh god…'_ he thought to himself _'please Mireille, snap out of it.'_

He was paralyzed with fear, he could feel a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face and his throat was so dry he couldn't swallow. James closed his eyes to try to control the terror sweeping over him and to think of what to do. Seconds passed.

"James? What's wrong, you look sick." Mireille said looking at him with a worried expression on her face.

When he opened his eyes it was Mireille, she was back. Her eyes were back to being that intense blue that told of intelligence and curiosity. He heard is wife let out a long breath and realized he had been holding his breath as well.

He knew then what Mireille spoke was true and believed he was spared a great many of the horrific details.

Lauren went to Mireille and gently hugged her and started to cry.

"What's wrong with those people?" she was saying "how could they do that to a child" she was sobbing. 'I'm sorry' was all she kept saying.

Mireille stiffened as Lauren came closer to her. She went rigid when the older woman hugged her and started crying. _"What's wrong with those people? How could they do that to a child" _Mireille relaxed and hugged the woman with her good arm.

"It's Ok Lauren, they didn't kill me or Kirika so, I'm Ok" Why was she comforting this woman? Moreover why did this woman care so much about her? To be honest she felt much better after telling them what had happened to her and Kirika. It felt right to tell them, and judging from their reaction she knew they could be trusted with her story. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable and gently distanced herself from the older woman. _'Don't get attached; don't let them get attached'_ she was thinking _'it's only going to hurt both of us in the end'._

"Well, thanks for the tea" she said looking toward the stairs "I'm kind of tired now, think I'm going to take a nap". Mireille thought that sounded like an excuse but turned toward the door anyway. "We can talk again later ok?" she said looking back at James and he nodded as he wiped some sweat off his brow. As Mireille made her way to the door she saw that Lauren was following her. "It's ok; I can make it on my own, no need to worry."

"I know your ok but it's time for me to check on your friend" Lauren said as she followed Mireille down the stairs.

Kirika was sleeping again when Mireille got to the side of the bed. Lauren was busy looking at the readouts on the screen by the head of the bed. Mireille felt out of place standing next to her injured partner doing nothing. She turned away and started to look at the room, it was sizeable to say the least. It had a great number of specialized pieces of medical equipment in it she realized, as well as an operating table. She had wandered about fifteen feet when she felt Lauren behind her.

"I don't know what your relationship with this girl is…" Lauren started "but I think she is sad because you don't talk to her. She really dose care for you. You know that right?"

Mireille looked at the older woman with a blank expression, but her mind was racing. _'How would she even know'_ she thought to herself bitterly _'she doesn't know anything about us.'_ For some reason she felt herself getting angry and embarrassed and didn't know why.

"She talks in her sleep" Lauren said explaining "sometimes when I come to check on you two at night she's talking in her sleep. Sometimes she's crying."

They both stared at the ground embarrassed; Mireille with the way she had been treating her partner, Lauren with what she had heard.

"What was she saying" Mireille asked weakly.

Lauren just gave her a sympathetic look. "You care for her too don't you" she asked.

_**'Of course I care for her!'**_ Mireille was screaming inside of her mind _'I couldn't kill her in the graveyard, even when she begged me to; I forgave her for what she had done. When she wanted to die at the manor I couldn't even imagine myself living without her help.'_ Mireille turned away and closed her eyes, trying to stop the flow of tears.

"She cries and says "_I'm sorry Mireille; please don't leave me" _Lauren said gently, putting a hand on Mireilles' back." The young blond seemed to fold in on herself and slumped to her knees hugging herself.

_"She cries and says 'I'm sorry Mireille, please don't leave me' " _It felt like someone had just stabbed her in the chest. She sank to her knees and just let her silent tears flow from her closed eyes trying to fight the crushing sense of shame and despair that she was feeling.

"She's the only person I have left" Mireille said with a sob. "She's my only friend, my only family."

Lauren sank down in front of Mireille and hugged her close, letting the girl cry on her shoulder.

_'So even assassins have feelings'_ Lauren thought bitterly _'how cruel the world has been to this child'_ was the only thing she could think.

"I don't want her to die, I don't want to be alone again" Mireille sobbed. Then she thought of the letter that Kirika had written…

_Mireille, l have a very bad feeling, a premonition. That is why l writing this to you now, when Chloe said that the __Soldats__ was my true home._

_I had this feeling, that I might not ever be able to see you again. There is another me Mireille; it is something that I now know must be true. It's strange, because I would not mind being killed by you. But if that time came and there was no time to exchange final words I could never bear that, because there is something that I want to tell you. No matter what else may happen between us. _

_I was alone Mireille… alone for such a long time. I had nothing and it frightened me and it hurt. And yet… and yet I was not alone, and although it came as a shock when I learned that "Noir" was originally a name for two my heart was filled with joy. And do you know why __Mirielle__? Because I found you, and I knew you were there for me and I was happy. I was so happy that I wanted to sing, because I… oh my dear Mireille I… I'm sorry, but I just can't express what I feel in writing._

_Thank you Mireille, thank you._

Mireilles' trembling body was racked with sobs now as she held onto the woman in front of her. _'__Kirika__ wrote a letter because she couldn't talk to me… because I wouldn't let her'_ she thought angrily. Mireille knew what the word was that Kirika was looking for, _'she wanted to say that she loved me; that she cared, because I showed her what trust is, what friendship is. She wrote that letter for the same reason that I was going to get her from that black hell that __Altena__ was dragging her down into.'_ The realization that she could have switched her name with Kirikas' in that letter and it would still be completely true stunned her. _'All this time and I never realized it was her… she was the one driving me forward into the light'_ The revelation almost crushed her because she hadn't felt this type of emotion in such a long time and now the only person she cared about, her only friend, thought that Mireille hated her and was going to leave her.

Mireille got hold of the emotions rampaging through her and stuffed them back down. She steadied her breathing and looked up at the woman holding her. She smiled and just looked at this woman who knew nothing of her yet gave her everything. This woman just by uttering a few words had shown her a truth that, in an instant, broke the pain and confusion she had felt about her partner for so long. She took a deep breath "Thank you Lauren" was all she could say. _'Now I understand'_ she thought to herself as part of a conversation between herself Chloe came to mind. _"An answer is something you have to find for yourself."_

* * *

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I could use some advice about how I'm doingsoplease review good or bad.

(still looking for a beta!)


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I reworked this chapter correcting some typos and reworking some things.

I would like to thank the people who read and reviewed my story! I sort of forgot about updating it for a while until Lucrecia dropped me a review!

**Disclaimer:**

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

"Speaking"

_'Internal first person'_

**Written note or email**

**Chapter 3**

_Cruel Dreams... _

Lauren had helped Mireille into bed and checked on Kikira one more time before she headed up the stairs to rejoin her husband. As she got to the top of the stairs Lauren saw that James hadn't moved since she left.

"James, are you ok?" she asked.

"Noir… how could they have done that to those girls" he said as he rested his face in his hands. And the Soldats, where were they and would they come after the two assassins? He knew that they would be staying with him for at least three months because of the extensive muscle damage Kikira had received, even after that she would need to do physical therapy for some time to regain her pre-operation mobility. He knew Mireille was able to take care of herself but would rather both girls be in top condition.

"What is Noir?" Lauren asked her husband.

James lifted his head and looked at his wife and let out a long sigh. He knew bits and pieces of the story; he used to be intensely interested in religion and had read a great deal on the subject. He even remembered a few books that referred to Noir.

"What is Noir…" he repeated "well, just like Mireille told us, an assassin trained from birth to be the most deadly person on the planet." James sighed again. "Noir is supposed to be some kind of divine killer who gives his victims forgiveness by taking the sins of the one he kills onto himself." James rubbed his temples. "I can tell you that everything I have read pointed to Noir being one man not two women, but what they said contradicts that so I'm going to have to go with them on this."

"But we know that Mireille isn't like that" Lauren said, "we know Mireille came here when she was about eight years old and lived with her uncle until she was seventeen. Isn't that what Claude told you?"

James knew this, it was true that Mireille wasn't raised by the Soldats but… a thought occurred to him _'maybe she __**was**__ raised by the __Soldats__… her uncle was a secretive man'_ it was starting to fall together now, _'and where else would she have learned the trade from?'_

"Claud was a Soldat" he said "it's the only way this makes sense, granted he didn't train Mireille as hard as the other girl was trained." James trailed off.

"What do you mean, not as hard?"

James got up and went into the other room and returned with a folder. When he got to the table he spread out several x-rays.

"Look, here are Kikiras x-rays, can you see what's wrong with them?" he asked his wife.

She studied them carefully for a moment and apart from the broken ribs and bullet nothing looked out of place. Sure she had a broken leg sometime in her past but that hardly meant what her husband implied.

"I don't see anything wrong… besides the obvious" she said slowly, still carefully scanning the pictures.

"Look again, and this time remember that she can't be more than eighteen" he hinted, but she still looked confused. "She can't be more than eighteen and she's not male" he continued patiently waiting for an answer.

Lauren looked again, for the life of her she couldn't figure out what her husband saw.

"Ok, what" she said slightly annoyed. She hated when he did this.

James walked out of the room back to his office again and came back with more x-rays and put one down on the table.

"This one is from a normal female age nineteen." He said sliding the sheet next to Kirikas.

"Oh my god… look at the bones" Lauren gasped "every bone in her body is much denser than a normal persons." She said in a shocked voice.

"Yes, and the only way to increase bone density is…" James asked.

"…through high impact workouts." Lauren finished his sentence. "But that normally takes eight to ten years to start showing like this."

James nodded, the thought of the type of training required to turn the teenager into what he saw on the xray… it was disgusting.

"I would say high impact training five or six times a week, total body, probably sparring, and hours at a time."

They both fell silent; thinking about what the two girls recovering in the basement must have gone through to survive.

* * *

The next morning Mireille woke up and stretched, carefully so as to not hurt herself. She looked over at Kikira and saw that she was still asleep. She also saw the dried tear stains marking her face. She hoped it wasn't from pain then thought about what Lauren had told her about Kikiras nightmares and hoped it was from pain. Mireille sighted, she hadn't slept well either, waking up twice and not feeling her partner next to her. She hoped that Kikira would be well enough to sleep in a normal bed soon. 

Mireille shook herself _'to think that I would need someone to sleep in bed with me for me to get a good night's rest. So much for the cold as ice assassin image.'_ she thought to herself and looked at her partner.

James had told her that today he was going to take Kikira off the morphine drip so she should start to become aware of her surroundings. Mireille chuckled at his insistence that she be there when Kikira woke up to "see a familiar face" which really meant "keep her from trying to kill me." She looked down at her right arm as she flexed it '_no pain there'_ she thought with some relief as she turned a sour look on her left arm and its heavy bandages. Even the movement of lifting herself out of bed had caused a dull throb.

"Well this is boring." She said to no one in particular. "I hope someone comes down to check up on us soon." She whispered to herself as she lay back down. She only had to wait a little while and James was in the room looking over readouts and checking the dressings on their wounds.

Mireille dutifully let him examine her arm and change the bandages. He handed her a small cup with pills in it and a bottle of water, which she took without question.

"I know this is probably a stupid question…" James said to Mireille "…but does she have a high tolerance for pain?"

Mireille glanced over at Kikira remembering when she had received the wound. She could remember every detail with perfect clarity. "She didn't even cry out when she was shot, and after that we walked almost a mile before she passed out."

James nodded, expecting an answer like that. "Well, I think we can take her off the morphine for today, she really needs to eat something solid, and I think she would do better if she was awake. Do you want to help me change her bandages?"

Mireille nodded and watched James pull up the light paper shirt off her partners' midsection exposing her, almost indecently. A wave of anger overwhelmed her before she even knew what was going on. She quickly clamped down on her emotions; James was just a doctor trying to change his patients' bandages, nothing more. Mireille was still trying to figure out what had triggered her anger when James motioned for her to help remove the old bandages. She carefully peeled the medical tape and gauze away to reveal the damage underneath.

Mireille could only look at what she saw and wonder why anyone would take this kind of damage to save her. As she continued to peel away the bandage to reveal Kikiras' back she saw the finger length incision where the bullet had been extracted. Looking at the wound as a whole it didn't look too bad, but Mireille knew better. She just hoped it hadn't damaged anything vital like a kidney.

"Look to your right there should be some fresh bandages and tape" James was motioning with his head "All in all it's not too bad, minor muscle damage front and rear, two broken ribs and a perforated small intestines. The bullet missed her kidney and lung but nicked a vein, really lucky if you ask me, if it had hit and artery instead she would have died of blood loss." James was saying as Mireille got to work bandaging her partners back.

James lay Kikira down gently as Mireille finished her back. He gently ran his fingers over the broken ribs causing Kikira to wince in pain, even in her unconscious state. "This is going to take a while to heal" James said while shaking his head "almost as long as the muscle. That means we'll have to wait until her ribs heal before starting any real physical therapy. But she should be up and about in a few days, don't worry Mireille she's going to be fine."

James quickly finished dressing the wound and pulled the light sheet up around Kikira.

"Lauren should be down in a little bit with some breakfast" he said "you must be starving, you really haven't eaten anything except some toast and tea for almost three days."

"Yeah" commented Mireille flatly. Her thoughts weren't on food at all, but what they were going to do next. Now that she knew Kikira was going to be ok she needed to figure out where they were going after leaving this villa. The apartment was out of the question, she might be able to make a quick trip there when her knee felt better but it really wasn't necessary. She had hidden several caches all over the city with cash, fake passports and weapons for both her and Kikira so money and a way out were covered. She also thought about the car parked in the long term lot at the airport, _'yes, if we can get a few of my caches and the car we could slip out of the country and __book__ a flight to…'_ Mireilles' thoughts screeched to a halt. Where would they go that the Soldats couldn't follow? What would they do when they got there? True, she had money, but quite a bit of it was spent trying to figure out who the Soldats were. Good information was never cheap, and she had bought a lot of good information in the short time her and Kikira had been together. At the time it hadn't bothered her because she always thought that she would find out what she wanted to know and go solo again, there were so many jobs that she could easily replenish her bank account but now she had Kikira to worry about.

"Good morning" Lauren said as she swept into the room with a tray "come over to the table and we can eat together. "She was looking at both Mireille and James. "I'm going back up to get the tea, James get the juice out of the refrigerator"

James could only shake his head, before coming down to check on his young patients he had told his wife that Mireille was probably hungry after three days of almost no food. He also told her not to get Mireille too excited or make her move around much.

"Well… Can't be helped" he said to no one in particular "Mireille let me help you up and to the table" he said as he strode around the bed.

Mireille thought that she had never tasted a breakfast so good in all her life, croissants, soft-boiled eggs, sweet jams and fresh fruit. It took her quite some time to work through everything offered considering she wasn't shy about asking for seconds. Lauren was picking up the dishes when she suggested that Mireille take a shower. James gave his wife a look that said _'she really shouldn't'_ but agreed that it would be ok if Mireille was careful not move too much or tear her stitches. Lauren help they young blond take off her bandages and shooed her toward the bathroom. As she walked through the door she saw James taking one of the IV tubes out of Kikiras arm. Mireille indulged in a long hot shower, even though the hot water made her stitches sting, it felt good to let the water play across her body and wash away at least some of the aches and pains. She couldn't exactly wash her hair because of her injuries so she did what she could with just one hand. After toweling off she looked around the bathroom and realized that she didn't have any cloths besides the hospital gown she had been wearing. She heard a light knock on the door.

"Mireille?" asked Lauren through the door "I have a robe for you if you don't want to put on that ridicules paper suit."

Mireille laughed at that "Thank you, I was wondering what I was going to wear and if I should put that rumpled thing back on"

The door barely cracked open and a hand with a fluffy white cotton robe pushed in. As soon as she took it the door closed. Mireille turned and dropped the robe on the counter, _'Well I can throw this away'_ she thought as she crumpled the hospital gown up and threw it in the trash. She tried to finish drying her hair but couldn't do a proper job of it without two hands. Disgusted she threw the towel in the hamper and slipped into the robe.

"Well, it's not like I'll be going out in public or anything anytime soon." she said to herself in a resigned tone as she walked out of the bathroom.

Lauren looked at the young girl in front of her, "Poor little thing." She smoothed some hair from Kirikas face then glanced over her shoulder toward the bathroom where Mireille was taking a shower and sighed then looked back at Kirika.

"You know your friend hasn't left your side for more than a few moments for almost three days" she told Kikira as she smoothed her bangs off of her forehead. "She wants to talk to you but just can't find the word that's all, so don't be sad. One day she will find the words, don't give up on her." Lauren couldn't help but stroke the young girls' hair; she just looked so innocent and helpless when she was sleeping like this. But she knew that this young girl was an assassin, she was trained in the most brutal arts of taking human life almost from birth. She could only imagine the horrors of such an upbringing.

Lauren turned toward the bathroom again as she heard the shower shut off and walked over to shelf and grabbed a robe for Mireille. She knocked on the door.

"Mireille?" asked Lauren through the door "I have a robe for you if you don't want to put on that ridicules paper suit."

She heard Mireille laugh and cracked the door open and pushed the robe in. Mireille took the robe quickly and thanked her. Lauren turned walked back over to Kikira to check on her again. She started to stroke the young girls' hand trying to comfort her even though she probably wouldn't feel anything. Just then she heard the bathroom door open and Mireille limp out, hair still wet with a frustrated look on her face as she muttered something to herself. Lauren got up from her seat beside Kikira as Mireille approached offering it to her. Mireille declined.

"No thanks, I'll just lie down on the other side" Mireille said as she made her way over to her bed on the other side and stopped. She looked over at Lauren and was going to ask for a towel but didn't want to bother her host anymore. _'She accepted me into her home, helped__ save __Kikiras__ life, made me tea,__ breakfast and talked James into letting me take a hot shower__…__'_ she thought to herself, _'__…__better not push my luck, I can live with a damp pillow.'_ So she flipped her hair across her shoulder so she wouldn't get the rest of the bed too damp.

Lauren saw that Mireille had looked like she was going to say something then thought better of it. She watched as Mireille flipped her hair around to her front and started to smooth it out and noticed it was still wet. It reminded Lauren of when her daughter had a broken arm and needed help drying and brushing her hair after a shower. _'Would she let me?'_ Lauren thought, _'the worst she can say is no and it would probably make her feel better.'_ Lauren had, on occasion, seen Mireille on the streets in Paris shopping at some of the more trendy clothing stores. She always looked impeccable with fashionable cloths and a well groomed appearance.

"Mireille, do you want me to help you dry and brush your hair?" Lauren said in a hopeful tone.

Mireille didn't know what to say, on one hand she would love to have her hair dry and combed but on the other she felt it would be awkward to accept. She fidgeted for a few moments and didn't know how to answer "no" without causing offense and "yes" without sounding needy.

"My daughter broke her arm once, I know how hard it is to try and do it yourself" Lauren said with a sad smile. "It won't be any trouble, and it will help pass the time until your friend wakes up."

Mireille looked at her partner again and saw the morphine drip had indeed been removed; its length was coiled around the metal rack holding up the bag it was connected to. Kikira was going to wake up today; she would be out of the drug induced stupor that had been holding her mind down for the past three days. Mireille had hoped that she would start to open up a little.

"Alright" said Mireille "I was going to ask for a towel but didn't want to bother you." She said quietly.

"Mireille, helping you when your hurt like this is never a bother" said Laurin as she smiled softly at Mireill. "I'll be right back let me get some things."

Lauren returned with a towel and a small bag. She sat Mireille down in the chair beside Kikira and started to gently dry her hair. She could tell by the way Mireille held her body, and the way that her hands were tense that she had reservations about what was happening. After Lauren finished drying her hair she opened up the small bag and retrieved a brush and started running it through the Corsicans' long blond hair. After several minutes she saw that Mireille was starting to relaxing and had even leaned back in her chair. _'See, there's nothing to be afraid of __here__ child'_ Lauren thought to herself.

Mireille was actually surprised that she was enjoying having her hair brushed. She had of course had her hair brushed by her stylist but never like this. Lauren's hand was slower, less hurried, and more genital. She could feel the kinks in her neck muscles unwinding as the soft tips massaged her scalp. _'I couldn't exactly say no'_ she thought to herself as she smiled, _'that would have been rude'_. Lauren continued to brush Mireilles hair until all the snarls were smoothed, and then set to work on putting her long tresses into a single tight braid. Lauren told her it was more practical than stylish, she would be sleeping most of the time and it would keep her hair from becoming too tangled. Just as the older woman was finishing both were interrupted by a low moaning sound.

"Kikira?" Mireille was leaning over her partner. "Can you hear me? Try not to move too much." She said quickly as her partners eyes started to dart around the room.

Lauren quickly summoned James to observe her; he would doubtless have a few questions about how she felt. On her way back from the intercom she grabbed a bottle of water and a straw and gave both to Mireille knowing that Kikira would be thirsty. James joined them almost at once and looked at blood pressure and heart rate.

"She's in some pain" James said keeping his eyes on the readouts, "but her blood pressure hasn't gone high enough to cause alarm. Now Kikira, I am Mireille's friend and your doctor…" he paused making sure she understood "…I am going to adjust the bed into a more upright position, it's going to hurt a little but if it hurts too much tell me and I'll lay you back down, OK?" He watched Kikira look over to Mireille and back, then nod affirmative at him.

* * *

Mireille looked at her partner, she was well and truly a mess. After waking up almost a week ago Mireille had been adamant about caring for her, from bandages to baths she took the responsibility of nursing Kikira back to health. Mireille did this for two reasons; the first was she knew how awkward and embarrassing it could be to have strangers, even if they were medical, give you a sponge bath and help you with other more privet matters, the second reason was that she wanted to make sure her partner was safe. It wasn't that she didn't trust their hosts, she just didn't trust anyone. She had also noticed a change in her partner, something that disturbed her. Kikira was more withdrawn than ever since that day at the manor. The one time that she had asked Kikira about the change she said "It's nothing, please don't worry about it Mireille". It seemed to agitate her so Mireille dropped the subject and moved on to more mundane topics. 

Mireille woke after Kikira, who was sitting up in bed rubbing her right shoulder. "How's it feeling today?"

"Ok" said Kikira as she slowly extended her arm then stopped wincing at the pain.

"Dr. James said we could move into the guest rooms today." Mireille said as she rubbed her own shoulder and stretched out her bad knee until an audible 'pop' was heard. She glanced over at her partner and saw she was just holding her side staring up at the ceiling as she lay in bed. "I'm getting tired of this dungeon he calls a recovery room." Mireille said trying to lighten the mood, "We might even start waking up at a normal time again." She had been waking up at around ten PM almost every day, _'Apparently getting shot and __passing__ out for a day sure messes up your internal clock'_ she thought to herself in disgust. She glanced at the old analog clock on the wall; it read a little past seven, problem was AM or PM?

Lauren walked down into the room and saw her two charges awake and talking to one another. "Well, I'm glad your' awake" she said happily, "After you two get dressed Let me help you upstairs and we can eat breakfast on the veranda." She was saying as she handed each of them a set of clean, if slightly oversized clothes.

Morning sunlight filtered down through the vine covered trellises on the veranda. Kikira was sitting at the table with her eyes closed evidently enjoying the soft breezes and the warm feeling of sun on her skin. Mireille realized that it had been almost seven days since her partner had seen the light of day, she really did look happier, but not by much.

"So, how are you two doing?" asked James as he did every time they woke up.

Mireille rotated her arm and flexed slightly "since you took the stitches out it feels better, it's still a little sore though."

"That's to be expected" James said "A word of caution, go slow. Go too fast and you'll do more harm than good, anyway you should be back preop in about a month." He turned his gaze on Kikira "And what about you young lady?"

"I'm Ok" Kikira said and looked down at her morning tea. Her dislocated shoulder had healed enough that she didn't need the sling but her stomach and back muscles still gave her problems not to mention the broken ribs.

James gave her a long searching look, "Alright, but if anything starts hurting please tell either me or my wife right away." The girl was just strange, Mireille had told him on several occasions that Kikira was the more skilled of the two of them by far but he just couldn't see it in the girl.

Kikira tilted her head back and closed her eyes again. She let the genital breezes caress her hair and let the sun warm her face. She had been thinking a lot about what went on in the manor, and she hadn't come up with any real answers, to be honest she hadn't even come up with any questions. The memories just seemed to replay themselves in an endless, death filled loop. She only knew that after finishing what she and Mireille had started she had lost her will to live. She just wanted to be free of all the guilt and shame of her past. She wanted to free Mireille from the reminder of her lost family. The scene played out in her mind again; Mireille had grabbed her hand at the last second before she was to fall into the abyss and begged her to live. After looking up into those sapphire eyes and seeing truth in the tears that were falling for some reason she did want to live. When Altena had tried to kill Mireille she hadn't hesitated to shield her, even if it meant dying. It wasn't about the promise she had made to protect her partner, it was something else. Kikira realized that she hated to see the blond in pain of any type; she would rather endure anything if it protected Mirreille. She wondered if her partner would do the same for her. Mireille had, after all, broken the promise to kill her after their past was reviled, and she had come to save her from Altena. The memory of Chloe flashed through her mind, _'why couldn't Chloe see the truth of what __Altena__ was doing, why did she need to die standing up for such a hateful lie…'_. The question had weighed heavily on her since she had killed Chloe. Chloe had thought that she and Kikira were best friends, soul mates, even that they could be lovers. She wanted nothing more than to be with Kikira and make her happy, but the price was too high, _'it would have cost Mireille her life and me my humanity'._ When she was in her drug induced stupor some of her memories of Chloe had come back. They were memories of when they were both much younger, though they couldn't be called pleasant by any stretch, but what she did remember was that Chloe was an innocent. She was pure and Altena had corrupted her mind with years of lies. Chloe was made into the exact opposite of what a child should have been, _'but then hadn't I done the same things? Killed for the same reasons? Been corrupted by the same __lies__?'_

"Kikira" Mireille shouted

Startled out of her thoughts she found that everyone was looking at her, _'they don't understand, not even Mireille'_ Kikira thought. She looked down at her food again and started to push it around her plate while ignoring everyone.

Mireille looked at her partner and for the hundredth time wished she could see what was going on inside her head. If she could only find out what was wrong she might be able to help the girl, but that would have to wait for later when they were alone.

"By the way Mireille" Said James "I just received word that the pistols you wanted will be in Paris today, my currier will have them here tomorrow morning. The Walther P99 and Glock 19C were easy, got them with a half dozen clips and silencers. The Beretta M1934 was a little harder, they had to get a custom barrel to fit the silencer, and of course it comes with six clips as well."

"Thank you James, I would have gone to my regular shop but I don't want anyone to know I'm in town just yet. Now, what about a place to practice" Mireille smiled at him.

They had finished breakfast and Mireille and Kikira were lead to the guest wing where they were each settled into rather well appointed bedrooms. Mireille fell back on the bed and heaved a sigh as she looked out the open window. Lauren came to check on her later in the evening and to tell her that dinner was almost ready. Mireille accepted and stopped by Kikiras' room on her way to the kitchen, she was sitting in a chair looking out the window like she used to back at the apartment.

"Kikira" Mireille said softly "are you hungry? Lauren said dinner is ready." She watched her partner for a response and thought that she was being ignoring but finally heard "umm-uum", and saw Kikira shake her head no. She was starting to worry that Kikira wasn't eating enough but Mireille figured she would eat if she got hungry.

After dinner Mireille passed by Kikiras room and saw she was still in the chair staring out the window. _'Why is she cutting me off'_ Mireille thought, _'why won't she talk to me?'_ Then she remembered the letter, _'she thinks I don't want to listen…'_ She took a step into the room and stopped, what was she going to say? She didn't know what to do or how Kikira would react, she might even make things worse; she took a step back into the hall and walked slowly back to her room.

Kikira had heard Mireille approach her room and stop by her door. She could feel her eyes watching her. _'Please Mireille, say something, anything'_ she sobbed in her head. She heard Mireille take a step toward her and stop again. Then she heard her back out of the room and retreat down the hall to her own room. Kikira let the pain of being alone overwhelm her again as silent tears rolled down her cheeks and fell into her lap.

Mireille looked at the clock 2:45 AM, she couldn't sleep at all. The bed was large and soft but she couldn't find any spot that was comfortable. She looked out the window and saw the soft glow of Paris in the distance. She wondered how Kikira was doing. She got up to check, quietly opening the door and padded down the hall to her partners room. She stopped in front of the still open door and saw that Kikira hadn't moved. This time Mireille walked over and knelt down by her and looked at her partners face. She could still see tearstains on her cheeks as Kikira continued to stare blankly out the window. "Kikira, why don't we go to bed" Mireille said softly "I'll help you come on." She reached out to help her partner up. Kikira twisted away from her hand and started to limp toward the door. "Kikira please, come to bed, why won't you sleep?"

Kikira didn't feel like going to sleep because she knew she would have the same nightmares of Mireille leaving her again, or Chloes face twisted with anger, pain and betrayal as she died. "I'm not tired" She lied trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm ok; I'll go to sleep later."

Mireille could hear the hurt in her voice, the desperate loneliness, as her partner lied about not being tired. Mireille felt the pain in her chest worsen, the weight of unbearable hopelessness and isolation dragging her to the floor. She didn't fight it, sinking to her knees and crying not being able to control the powerful emotions that inundated her. "Kikira why are you doing this?" she said with a trembling voice "you're not eating, you barely drink anything, I know you haven't slept for almost two days. Why did you let me save you if you were just going to slowly kill yourself in front of me?" She felt so powerless and weak in her life. Mireille remembered the letter, "I found your letter,do you want to know what word you were looking for?" Mireille asked, sobbing the words out. Kikira had stopped and was wavering on her feet; Mireille rose and closed the small distance between them and stepping in front of the younger girl gently embraced her. She could feel the tears streaming down Kikiras face now, "… the word you were looking for was 'love' you idiot." She felt Kikiras knees give out as the girl desperately clung to her neck.

Kikira could feel Mireilles soft embrace and thought _'this is another dream, it feels too good to be real.'_ Then she heard _"… the word you were looking for was 'love' you idiot." _whispered in her ear. She felt faint and her legs stopped working, now as she was overcome with the fear "Please Mireille, don't leave me alone, I would rather die than be alone again." she said as sobs shook her body.

Mireille, ignoring the pain from her knee, lifted her partner and put her on the bed. "I'll never leave you Kikira, don't worry about that now." Mireille said gently and tried to walk around the other side of the bed.

"Mireille please don't leave me!" Kikira said in a panicked sob. She held on as tight as she could to Mireilles arm as she trembled in fear and pain. "I know you can never forgive me for what I did, but kill me before you leave this time…please Mireille" she sobbed pitifully "I don't want to be alone again…"

Mireille looked at her partner through blurry tear-filled eyes and realized that Kikira thought this was a nightmare. "Kikira, you're not dreaming" she said softly "and I will never send you away or leave you ever again… I promise." Kikira relaxed her grip and let Mireilles arm slip away. Mireille made her way to the other side of the bed and slipped under the covers. As Mireille got comfortable she could feel Kikira crawl close and took the blonds hand hugging it to her chest. Mireille felt little sobs occasionally as Kikira settled into sleep. To be honest Mireille liked the familiar warmth by her side and the measured pace of her partners breathing, it was somehow soothing she thought as sleep quickly overcame her senses.

**Auther**** notes:**

You may have noticed that I don't like to end chapters with cliffhangers. I like wrapping up a chapter tight, so that the story is what brings you back, not the need to resolve the last paragraph of the previous chapter…

Again thanks for the reviews! Sorry for the long wait, I am currently un-employed and seeking a job… anyone need a mechanical engineer who specializes in structural steel construction:-)

Got the next chapter written but I want to go over it a few times… also, still looking for a beta reader!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:**

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

"Speaking"

_'Internal first person'_

**Written note or email  
**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**The Person I Don't Want to Meet  
**

* * *

"You called grandpa?" The person asked through the doorway.

"Yes child, come in. I have something for you." The older man said as he held up a folded letter with an ornate red wax seal.

He handed it over and watched as it was read. The reader frowned in disapproval then looked up at the older man.

"Grandpa, should I help them, or leave it to fate?"

"That decision is entirely up to you, what is it you think you should do?" asked the older man.

He watched his charge closely to catch any sign of emotion but saw none. He watched the young person, eyes closed, head tilted back, contemplate the correct course of action. After a few seconds an answer was given.

"Yes, I think I will help," was the statement from the younger person "Kikira was a good friend and we had fun together so I would feel bad if she died… Yes, I'm going first thing in the morning."

The older man smiled knowing that his charge had reasoned through the question and come to a personal answer, unaffected by outside influence.

* * *

Mireille woke feeling of warmth between her shoulder blades. She listened to Kikiras' breathing, it was still the slow steady rhythm of sleep. She took stock of her situation without seeming to waking her partner; the young girl had one arm draped across Mireilles waste and her knee was resting on the inside of her thigh. Before the manor this type of close contact would have bothered Mireille, but now she actually felt good about it. She felt that she was giving her partner at least some security as well as a respite from her nightmares of abandonment. She felt Kikiras arm tighten around her waist then relax the young girl shifted slightly. Kikira let out a sigh of contentment as she pressed into Mireille's back. The sensation of hot breath between her shoulder blades, even blocked by her light cotton shirt, raised goosebumps on Mireilles arms, _'It's definitely time to wake up.'_ she thought to herself. She tried to slip out of her partners grasp without waking her but failed. 

"Good morning Mireille." Kikira said as she rolled on her back and rubbed her eyes after stretching.

Mireille said her good mornings and watched as Kikira slid out of bed and started to do her stretching exercises. Kikira had come a long way in three weeks, she was up and moving by herself and only had a slight limp. The depression that had plagued Kikira the first week was lifted after Mireille had promised to never leave her partner. The next day was awkward to be sure, during the night Mireille found that somehow Kikira had ended up sleeping nearly on top of her. Her partner was laying on her side using Mireille shoulder for a pillow with one arm draped across her stomach and their legs tangled together. Even more surprising to Mireille was when she woke up that she was holding the arm across her midsection while cradling the young girl tight to her side with the other. Lauren had come to check on Kikira in the morning and found them sleeping that way. _'I would have liked to see her reaction when she walked in'_ thought Mireille with a smile _'she must have turned red as a beet.'_ After waking up and explaining to Lauren that Kikira always slept in the same bed with her in Paris because there was only one bed. "But why do you and Kikira still share a bed, you have a nice room with its own bed now." Mireille started to say something but stopped… what could she say that wouldn't offend the older woman, _'that I can't sleep without Kikira by my side; that Kikira sleeps better by mine?'_ neither seemed like a response that wouldn't embarrass someone. Then, of course, Kikira spoke up "we're partners, what's wrong with sleeping together?" was her innocent response. Mireille was mortified, Lauren was blushing again and stammering something about 'improper behavior' and Kikira was completely confused. Thankfully everything worked out when James had a private talk with his wife.

Mireille looked over her shoulder at Kikira, "you want to get some shooting practice in today after we do our exercises?"

Kikira stopped and leaned against the wall panting from the pain of stretching her healing muscles "Yes… that would be alright. I like the new pistol better than my old one, the action is much smoother and the trigger pull is much lighter."

Kikira didn't like to lie to her partner but when Mireille had given her the choice between the Beretta and the Glock she took the latter for personal reasons. She wanted to tell Mireille that she would rather not have a gun at all, but knew not having a weapon would be foolish, nearly to the point of being suicidal; they still had the Soldats to consider. She picked the Glock because the Beretta reminded her of her dark past and the tragedy and pain she inflicted on Mireilles childhood. She closed her eyes and reminded herself that she was not that person anymore, she was Kirika Yuumura and not some tool being used by the Soldats.

* * *

It was another slow day, after stretching and eating breakfast both assassins went behind the villa and had a round of shooting practice. Mireille was pleased that her partner was just as accurate with her new Glock as she had been with her older firearm. After eating a light lunch Kikira asked if they could go on a walk around the gardens behind the house. Mireille thought it would be a great change from the regular exercises and agreed. They walked in a comfortable silence only broken by the occasional comment from Kikira about this plant or that. After walking for a little ways Mireille saw that her partner was slowing down and her limp was getting more pronounced. 

"Let's stop for a few minutes." Mireille said nodding toward a bench under a shade tree.

"Sure, that would be nice." Said Kikira as she eyed the seat, sweat dripping from her brow.

Mireille sat down next to her young partner and wondered what Kikira was thinking. She was staring off into the distance again lost in her own thoughts. True things between them had been better since that night she had told Kikira about the letter, but neither of them spoke of the letter or the conversation.

"Are you… Ok Kikira?"

"I'm Ok, just a little sore that's all" Kikira said while looking at the grass by her feet. She knew Mireille didn't mean if her body was Ok, she wanted to know about the Manor again. She still couldn't bring herself to voice out loud what had happened and what she had done to save Mireille. _'It was an impossible choice'_ she thought bitterly _'__To __let Mireille die, the one person who saw me as something more than a killer, or kill Chloe… she was just like I had been, just like me… she was confused and scared and didn't know how to handle the emotions she__ felt__'_ She suddenly felt very cold and alone, confusion dominated how she felt about everything. She knew that the peaceful routine she was enjoying while recuperating was temporary, they still had the Soldats to think about. She doubted that they would just leave them alone. Then they would have to go back to killing again, taking lives.

Mireille watched the young woman beside her, waiting to see if she was willing to talk about what was on her mind. _'I guess she'll talk when she's ready'_ Mireille thought. She knew that Kikira was evading the question by telling her that she was 'just a little sore'. She wasn't just a little sore; Mireille had noticed that even walking just a hundred meters winded her partner, when before she could sprint the same distance and not break a sweat. She was worried that if somehow the Soldats were to find them Kikira wouldn't be able to defend herself. She knew that recovery would take a while, James told her it could take up to three months, but she was still worried at the slow pace. Though, Kikira had decided to forgo her old model Beretta for the newer Glock; Mireille was secretly relieved that her partner had chosen the more modern weapon with its larger magazine capacity. It meant that Kikira could protect herself much more efficiently without as many reloads, which was good given her current physical situation.

"Let's get back to the house, I could use a shower and we have guns that need cleaning." Mireille said as she held a helping hand out to her partner. Kikira accepted her help and they slowly made their way back to the villa.

Mireille wiped her hands on the cloth sitting on the table the finished assembling the weapon in front of her. She set the pin that would hold the slide in place, and giving it a final wipe put the weapon back in her purse. After showering they went to the kitchen to find Lauren. It seemed that Lauren was always cooking some tasty meal or baking some confection. Mireille liked Lauren; she was rather motherly toward both her and Kikira. Mireille was able to brush her hair without too much trouble now but still remembered how good it felt to have someone else do it. Maybe she could brush Kikiras' hair, her partner was much too practical to do anything more than run a brush through her hair to make herself look presentable. She tugged her braid over her shoulder and played with the end, she liked having the braid, and it was rather practical at keeping her hair from getting sweaty now that she had to work the weak muscles in her shoulder. As she and Kikira entered the kitchen Lauren was filling a kettle with water.

"Good evening girls, would you like to join me for a cup of tea?" Lauren asked as she put the kettle on the stove.

"I would love to Mrs. Allen" Mireille said as she sat down at the table.

Without prompting Kikira went to the cabinet and started collecting the cups and setting the small table.

"We only need three settings dear James is out at the moment." Lauren said as she placed a small rack with a selection of teas on the table. "He left shortly after you two went out for your walk. Oh, how did you enjoy the gardens?"

"They were beautiful, but I'm a city girl so all this peace and quiet is still new to me." Mireille commented a hint of laughter in her voice as she pushed her braid back over her shoulder.

After they had shared a quiet cup of tea and a light dinner both young women went back to their room. Mireille was checking up on the day's events on her computer while Kikira took a nap.

Mireille leaned back in her chair letting her arms hang limp while looking out the open window into the countryside and sighed in contentment. _'I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time'_ she thought to herself. She was watching the setting sun paint the evening sky with red and orange when she saw movement by the road. It was a man moving around the back end of the car that was parked on the side the road, it looked like he was changing a tire. The car looked familiar; she'd seen it the previous day when she was on the veranda talking with James. Even then she thought it was suspicious but passed it off as someone enjoining a slow ride through the countryside. This was too much of a coincidence in Mireilles' view, either this was a horrible attempt a surveillance or they really were civilians that had a flat tire. In any case she would have to check it out. In the profession she and Kikira were in there was no such thing as paranoia, it was usually called caution, and it kept you alive more times than not.

Mireille glanced over at Kikira's sleeping figure and quietly picked up her gun, and silencer then slipped out of the room. She wouldn't involve Kikira if she didn't need to, her partner was just starting to open up and she didn't need any Soldat flunkies undoing all the good she'd done. She had just finished tucking her gun into the waistband of her shorts when she ran into Lauren.

"Lauren, I'm just going to go out for a little walk. Kikira's in our room sleeping, if she wakes up tell her I'll be back in a few minutes."

With a nod and smile Lauren went back to whatever work she was doing and Mireille slipped out the side door. She started around to the side of the house where she could use the tree line next to the road to hide her approach. As much as she wanted to spare Kikira from any type of trouble she would go back and get her partner is this proved to be some kind of Soldat surveillance, they really did work better as a team. As she approached she came within fifty meters of the car before stopping and taking a good look. Even from this distance she could tell that the man pretending to change the tire was a Soldat, the cookie-cutter black suit was a dead giveaway. The trunk of the four-door sedan was open and she could see a laptop glowing softly in its trunk. The man seemed engrossed in talking on a cell phone and checking information on the computer every now and then. Mireille decided it would be okay to sneak a little closer to see if she could eavesdrop the conversation he was having. It was slow going but she made it within listening distance of where the car was parked without being seen. The man was still chatting on his cell phone when he suddenly stopped, turned, and looked Mireille directly in the eye

"Didn't think you'd come out here alone Noir. Where's that other little bitch?" The man said in a mocking voice as he snapped his cell phone shut and leaned against the car, apparently completely at ease.

Something didn't seem right. Mireille looked around but nothing looked amiss, but her assassins' instincts kept telling her something was wrong. _'This could be a trap, but I don't see where anyone else could be hiding.'_ Mireille thought to herself as she scanned the surrounding area.

"I didn't think it would require both of us to kill one Soldat lap dog and his infantile attempts at surveillance." She said as she walked toward the man keeping her gun trained on his chest as she approached. She grabbed the cell phone out of his hand and threw it into the weeds to the side of the road.

"Now I'm going to ask you some questions, and I expect answers." She motioned with her gun that he should step aside and she took a look at what was on the screen of a laptop. It was just some random webpage, nothing important. Suddenly all her instincts were screaming at her to get away from this man, something was wrong, very very wrong. She started to back away and spotted movement from the corner of her eye, she turned to engage this new threat but felt a tremendous blow hit her from behind. She quickly looked at the Soldat standing next to the car, he hadn't even moved, he just stood there smiling. She glanced around wildly staggering from the blow between the shoulder blades and heard the man quickly say "Are you insane, put her down quickly!" Mireille was backing away trying to find cover when she was hit by a rain of powerful blows to her midsection and back. It felt like somebody was hitting her with a baseball bat over and over. As she stumbled and fell to the ground the man at the back of the car took the opportunity to disarm her, stepping on her wrist and taking her gun away.

"Infantile attempt at surveillance... You think we're amateurs? We aren't like the other factions in the Soldats who are stuck in the old ways; we embrace the new ways of doing things." As he was talking two men approached the car, one from the front, and one from behind both were dressed fully in camouflage. The weapons they carried resembled shotguns but each had a coil of hose connected to a bottle and a large rotary magazine.

_'These guys don't look or act anything like the Soldats we fought before' _Mireille thought as she took stock of her situation, _'if anything they look more like a paramilitary group.'_

"No, I'm afraid we're not amateurs." The man continued "The only reason we went with this particular plan was because we were told to capture you alive, otherwise you would have been dead yesterday." As he said this he used zip-ties to secure Mireilles' hands in front of her, then her ankles. Afterwards he ran a longer zip tie through her elbows and secured it to the bindings on her ankles behind her back. After he finished the only thing she was able to do was kneel down in a hunched over position, she couldn't even straighten her back because the bindings would cut into her elbows.

Suddenly several shots rang out from the direction of the villa. The man looked in the direction of the sounds and reached for his side pocket, hesitated when he realized his phone was gone, and then asked one of his subordinates to check in with the other capture team.

"In fact why don't you go help them, I think I can take care of one hog-tied teenage girl by myself." The two men saluted and hurried away in the direction of the villa.

"Now that we're all alone let me change into something a bit more... comfortable, follow me." The man said as he dragged Mireille to the trunk easily lifting her and threw her in.

* * *

Kikira woke with a start; she was covered in sweat with phantom pains that felt like sharp impacts all over her body. She quickly glanced around and found Mireille was nowhere in the room. Something deep down inside her was screaming that there was trouble and that Mireille was in trouble. She looked out the window and saw a parked on the side the road, there was a man standing a little ways behind it talking to two other men dressed in camouflage. She grabbed her gun, a few magazines and quickly slipped out the door. Her senses had sharpened dramatically with danger so close, she just hoped she could control the dark side of herself, the part that was Noir. For some reason it felt different this time, she could still remember Mireille but she could also recall all of her training. She heard Lauren in the next room humming and doing housework, she would warn Lauren, tell her to get to a safe place then she would find Mireille. 

Kikira slipped into the room soundlessly behind Laura and startled her when she spoke "Lauren listen to me carefully, you need a hide, they have men here that are after us. Don't go outside the house and lock yourself in a room with no windows. Have you seen Mireille?" Kikira was talking quickly but clearly in her usual quiet, emotionless voice.

Lauren quickly told Kikira that Mireille had said she was going on a walk and that she would be back in a little while. She also told Kikira that the basement was a safe room and that they should all go there and call the police. Kikira merely turned away and headed toward the door.

_'Mireille why did you leave me, you said you'd never leave me. How can I protect you if you're not here with __me?'_ Was all Kikira could think as she silently slipped out the side door of the house. As she made her way towards the road along the north side of the house she spotted three men armed with what looked like shotguns. She immediately took cover behind a clump of bushes and watched them approach. She sighed in relief as they continued to approach the villa cautiously, carefully watching the window of the room they shared, she hadn't been spotted. The men seemed intent on gaining entry into the house and Mireille was nowhere to be seen, which worried Kikira. If these men had hurt Mireille in any way they would pay, she needed to find her partner quickly. Kikira leaned out slightly from her hiding place and squeezed off two shots in quick succession killing the two men in front. The third jump behind the corner of the house before she could get another shot off. She glanced to her right and saw that she was being flanked by two more Soldats coming from the direction of the road; they didn't hesitate and started firing on her. As she dodged the first wave of bullets and took cover behind the stone bench she realized that they weren't lethal rounds. _'They want to capture us alive, they're using stun rounds' _she thought to herself as she saw one of the black rubber bullets bouncing away from the house. She knew the rounds weren't lethal, but getting hit multiple times could incapacitate person, so she was careful not to get hit. The two men took a defense of position behind a tree and stopped their foreword assault.

* * *

The man now dressed in army fatigues pants with a plain olive drab T-shirt walked up to the trunk and leaned in and whispered in a lecherous voice, "I didn't realize the pictures they gave us were up to date, I thought they were older pictures. I never expected the great Noir to be a pair of sexy teenage girls." He said as he ran his hand over Mireille's bare thigh. "The orders we were given only said you had to be brought back alive by any means necessary, but before we bring you back let's have a little fun." Just then he was interrupted the loud chirp of a radio, "Capture team one leader this is capture team two, we have two men down but we have the subject pinned down near the north side of the house. What are your orders?" 

Cursing about the problems of capturing assassins alive he looked toward the radio then told Mireille, "Don't worry honey, I'll be right back, and then we can continue where we left off."

Mireille seethed inwardly at the unwanted attention. She would kill this man with her bare hands if, no when she got the chance. She couldn't see which way he went because she was facing away from the opening of the trunk and she couldn't turn around because of her bindings. Mireille tried to make out the conversation he was having over the radio but could only hear indecipherable mumbles. Then he seem to get mad and she heard him yell "Well tell that little bitch if she doesn't give up I'm going to start cutting fingers off her pretty blonde partner here, see what she has to say that." Mireille began to panic, not for her own situation, but the one she was putting Kikira in. She knew Kikira would do anything to protect her, even surrender to these bastards. A noise brought her back to what was happening around her, she heard the sound of someone stumbling and hitting the ground, a long pause, then the crunch of gravel as someone approached the trunk. She felt the bindings that held her elbows together behind her back were cut. A hand slipped under her arm and across her stomach, it had something cold and hard and it, a knife. The hand went to Mireille's and gently deposited a knife in her open palm. The person pulled away quickly as Mireille started to cut her hands and legs free. When Mireille crawled out of the trunk and looked around there was nothing on the road except the dead body of the man who had been in charge. A glint of steel caught her eye; she walked closer to his body and saw that he had a throwing knife protruding from the back of his neck. Mireille felt chills run down her spine, the style of throwing knife was unmistakable, and it was the exact same style that Chloe used. Several more shots rang out in the direction of the villa. Mireille ran to the back to the car to retrieve her gun, that's where she found her second surprise. James was lying across the back seat bound, gagged, and beaten to a pulp. Mireille took the knife that was still in her hand and cut his restraints helping him out of the car. Without a word back to him she picked up her gun from the floor of the car and started sprinting back toward the villa.

* * *

"We have your blonde friend, surrender to us or we'll start cutting her fingers off one at a time." The man yelled and paused to wait for a response. "Can you hear me or are you deaf?" He yelled again from behind the corner of the house. 

Kikira had heard what he said about Mireille being captured but she didn't believe him. She had this strange sense that her partner was no longer in danger and was making her way back to the villa. All she was doing now stalling for time waiting for Mireille to arrive. If she was fully healed the situation she currently found herself in wouldn't have presented a problem. But right now the weak muscles in her lower back were burning from the punishing physical activity. That coupled with being bedridden for over a month had made her entire body weak. She didn't want to risk getting hit by one of the stun shots and going down. She was watching the two that had taken cover behind the tree when she heard a sound; most people wouldn't have even heard such a quiet little sound much less known what it was, but Kikira knew; it was the slide cycling on a silenced Walter P99 pistol, she could even hear the tink of the empty 9 mm shell casing as it hit the concrete of the veranda. Knowing that Mireille had taken care of the man by the corner she leaned out from the stone bench and pinned the two remaining men behind the tree with a quick burst of fire. Mireille easily picked off the one furthest from the tree, but was surprised when the remaining one dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender.

Mireille was about to finish off this would be kidnapper when James walked up behind her out of breath saying "Mireille don't kill him, I have a few questions for him."

"Don't waste your breath, they are Soldats, they're willing to die for their beliefs, you won't get anything out of him." She said as she approached him with her gun trained on his chest. Kikira appeared from behind the stone bench and was limping over to join them.

"Mireille are you okay?" Kikira questioned the slightly battered and bruised blonde. When she finally made it to Mireille muscles in her back cramped painfully and caused her to stumble into her partner. She heard the hiss of a quick intake of breath and she quickly backed away as Mireille cradled the side of her stomach with her free hand.

"What happened?" Kikira asked as she ran her hands gently under her partners shirt and lifted it. Her eyes widened as saw the bruises, each with a small bloody circle in the center. Kikira knew that wounds like the one she was looking at came from stun shots used at close range. The damage caused by stun shots was rarely fatal but could inflict a lot of pain and break bones at close range.

The man Mireille was holding at gunpoint saw a momentary lapse in his captors' attention and quickly slapped Mireille's gun away making her shot go wide. With one smooth movement he drew his combat knife ready to attack Kikira, but before he could even move forward there was a flash from the direction of the house and a throwing knife was buried in the side of the man's neck. As he fell to the ground everyone turned and pointed their weapons toward the new threat, which was seated on the stone bench that Kikira had taken refuge behind. He was a young boy, no older than Kikira; he was dressed in black cargo pants and a baggy gray T-shirt with some kind of tactical Vest over that.

"You should really be more careful around this particular group of Soldats; most of them have military training." He stated matter-of-factly as he got up smoothly and walked toward them. Strangely enough Kikira was the first to say something.

"Stop right where you are, who are you?" She said in a flat even voice.

The boy stopped with a confused look on his face. He squinted slightly as he scrutinized Mireille, and then turned his attention back to Kikira studying her again. "You are Yuumura Kikira, aren't you?" He asked with a bewildered look on his face. You have to be, you are Noir, why else would the Soldats be coming after you."

"Who we are isn't important right now. Who you are, and what you want is what you should be telling us about." Mireille said angrily.

The boy looked confused; he unconsciously brought his hand up and ran it through his hair in a sign of frustration. That's when both Kikira and Mireille saw the wrist brace strapped to the inside of his arm, it had four of Chloe's throwing knives in it. Mireille lowered her gun slightly, "you're the one that gave me the knife and killed the Soldat by the road. Why... who are you?"

The boy was staring at Kikira again, "You really don't remember me?" He said in a hurt voice.

Mireille glanced at her partner; she could tell that Kikira was extremely upset by this person by the way her hands slightly trembled ever so slightly as she held the gun on him. Looking back at the boy she was surprised to see his eyes shining with unshed tears.

The boy was silent for some time before he spoke again. Wiping the tears from his eyes he knelt down and clasped his hands in front of him as if in prayer and said "I'm sorry for my impudence Mistress, if it is Noirs' wish that I should die for what I have done then I freely accept your judgment."

Mireille lowered her gun and looked over at Kikira, her gun was still aimed at the boy and her hands were trembling worse than before. Mireille could see in her eyes that she was fighting to remember who this person was, and what he could have done to deserve death. Her eyes were half way between what Mireille termed the 'True Noir Eyes' and what she looked like normally.

"Kikira" Mireille said gently, "don't kill him, he saved my life and he might know who you really are, he might know about your past."

Kikira had a white knuckle grip on her gun trying to steady it. "I don't want to be who I was; I want to be who I am now!" She screamed as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I am not a tool of the Soldats, I don't want to be that person, and I don't want to know that person. That person took your parents lives Mireille, that person almost killed you at the manner Mireille, that person killed Chloe, that person was a monster that even you were afraid of. I don't ever want to meet her; I don't want to ever be her again." Kikira voice trailed off as her breath hitched.

Mireille was stunned; Kikira was usually in complete control of her emotions, right now her emotions were wildly out of control. She could tell her partner was confused and scared. She cursed whatever training the Soldats put her through that had attempted to erase all traces of emotion from her to create a living weapon, a tool used to kill. Her thoughts were interrupted by the boy.

"Kill me Kikira; kill me for what I have done. I taught you terrible things when you were a child; I helped teach you how to kill people. I deserve nothing less than death, but coming from you I think I can accept it." He said in a pleading voice.

Kikira frozen in shock, she even stopped breathing, as the words sunk into her mind. _'This __is the same thing I begged Mireille to do in the graveyard.' _Suddenly her memories of the person kneeling in front of her came back in a white hot flash of pain. It felt like her head would split open; she put her hands to her head trying to ease her agony but it still dropped her to her knees. The pain was so excruciating that she dropped her gun and grabbed the back of her head as she crumpled in on herself.

Mireille quickly knelt down beside her partner and held her gently trying to get Kikira to tell her what was wrong. Then she heard Kikira whispering something, she got closer until she could make out what Kikira was saying.

"That person's name is... is... Chris? He helped train me in advanced knife fighting, knife throwing, and hand-to-hand combat. He was... nice to me, he helped me when they were training my mind. But then they wouldn't let me see him after I started my second month of mind training. Because... they said it was because he was interfering with my training." Kikira was talking in any strange confused clipped voice. Mireille just continued listening until Kikira went silent. She looked up at the boy who was still kneeling with his head bowed and hands clasped waiting.

"Is your name Chris?" Mireille asked.

"Yes Mistress it is." He said quietly without looking up.

Mireille gave him a long searching look, _if__ he __trained Kikira then he's at least as dangerous as she is, but if he was working for the Soldats then he wouldn't have__ helped me_ she decided that she needed to talk to this boy to figure out whose side he was on. He might not be their enemy, but that didn't automatically make him their ally.

"Get up Chris; no one's going to kill you." She said then turned her attention to James "Could you help Kikira inside to our room, I want to talk to Chris for a moment, alone."

James nodded and lifted Kikira into his arms and walked back toward the side door. Mireille turned her attention to the boy in front of her who had risen to stand head bowed in front of her. Mireille sighed noisily as she watched the boy.

"By what name should I call you Mistress?" He asked Mireille.

Mireille ground her teeth in frustration, "For one thing you can stop calling me mistress, and you had better not call us Noir, if you must address me formally call me Miss. Bouquet."

"I'm sorry Miss. Bouquet, it's just that I was shocked that Kikira didn't remember me..." he trailed off and pitiful voice. "We promised each other we'd never forget and that we would always be friends no matter what. I know it was a long time ago but..." his voice trailed off weakly again, his thoughts were scattered "... grandpa told me that she may not be the Kikira I remember, that the Soldats brainwashing may have made her forget about me. I told him it was a risk I was willing to take if it meant saving the life of a close friend."

Mireille just shook her head, she didn't think he was an enemy but he was too much like Chloe for her liking. "Why did you save me, I've never met you before."

The boy stared at her like she should have already know the answer, but spoke anyway, "I had to save you, you are Noi..." he stopped before he finish the sentence remembering that Mireille didn't want to be called Noir, "I'm sorry please forgive me Misstre..." he quickly clapped his hands over his mouth remembering her first part of her request.

Mireille watched all of this and let out a soft chuckle. _'I take it back, nothing like Chloe' _she thought to herself as she watched the tongue-tied boy tried to apologize. "Just come on inside, I'm going to check on Kikira you stay in the sitting room."

Mireille watched as Chris bobbed his head down in a slight bow and stayed silent, probably fearing to say else wrong. He dutifully walked the side and slightly behind Mireille as she made her way back toward the side door.

"By the way, you forgot about this" Mireille said as she offered Chris his knife back.

"You can keep it…" he said as he reached into the top of his boot and extracted a small leather sheath and tossed it over to Mireille "…and here is the sheath for it, made both of them myself so you can trust the craftsmanship Miss. Bouquet."

Mireille walked into the hall leading to their room and left Chris in the sitting room. She stopped halfway to her room and looked down at the small knife in her hand, it was beautiful. It had intricate scrollwork carved into the steel of the handle, there were small flowers inlaid with gold that contrasted sharply with the silver of the polished steel. She tested the edge with her thumb and found it to be razor-sharp. _If __he proves not to be a threat, going to have to thank him for this...'_ she thought to herself. She tucked it into its sheath and pocketed the small knife as she continued down the hall toward her partner.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

Sorry for the long wait, I am currently un-employed and seeking a job… anyone need a mechanical engineer in the New Orleans area who specializes in structural steel construction :-)

Finally little bit action to the story right? I think the story should take off from here, I'm going to build up the "Chris" character a little bit, but from here on out it's going to be subplots and working toward the main story arc resolution. And since this story is filled with assassins, shadowy illuminati like organizations, and of course Mireille and Kikira I expect the body count in the story will probably increase significantly in future chapters.

I'm kind of torn about how bloody I should make some of the scenes in the story, so if anyone wants to post opinions (more vivid battle scenes, more blood and gore,etc.) I am willing to take any suggestions into consideration when writing future chapters. Even though I'm writing this story for my own enjoyment, I am putting it on the Internet for everybody to read, so I think the Internet should get to enjoy the story as much as me, and I like the challenge of writing toward a goal.

I've already started on next chapter, and have most of it written already. The cool thing is I'm using this new voice to text software, and it's impressive. I think it's going to completely change my writing style because now I can just speak and have train of thought appear on the computer screen. This has really helped me with character dialogue because now I can talk it out in real time. It also helped me avoid awkwardly worded sentences and some spelling mistakes (mostly for the big words). I have to admit I didn't realize how much work typing was until I got the software.

Please read and review!

By the way still looking for a beta reader, PM me if you're interested.


	5. Chapter 5 Who is my Past

**Disclaimer:**

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

"Speaking"

'_Internal first person'_

**Written note or email**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Who is my Past**

* * *

As Mireille entered the room she saw James removing a blood pressure cuff from Kikira's arm. He pressed a stethoscope to the top of her chest and told her to breathe normally. Mireille was content to wait until he had finished his examination before she talked to Kikira. After her partner had taken a handful of breaths James got up and said to Kikira "Well physically you're all right, I can bring you something for the headache or you could just take the pain pills that I gave you after your surgery. It's really up to you." Kikira sat up in bed and rested her head on her knees. James glanced over at Mireille and started for the door "Mireille if she needs anything… if either of you need anything please come down and ask. I saw the bruises on your stomach if you think you have any broken ribs or internal bleeding..." James said as he went to the door, and then stopped. "I'm going to make a few calls and have this mess cleaned up. Is there anything you want from these guys? Wallets, briefcases, any papers or whatever before I call the cleaners."

Mireille thought for a second, "In fact there is, in the front seat of a car you'll find a laptop, I'd like to take a look at it. You can check the bodies for identification or 

papers, but I doubt you'll find anything useful. It'll be the same with the car but you can look." She paused again and thought, "Oh and any cell phones they have as well, we might be able get some phone numbers."

Mireille turned back to Kikira as James walked out of the room. She was still sitting on the bed with her head resting on her knees. She sat down on the end bed and tried to collect her thoughts.

"You're not mad at me or anything are you?" Mireille asked quietly.

Kikira shifted slightly and looked up at Mireille "No, I could never be mad at you Mireille. I should be the one apologizing; I shouldn't have said all those things." She said as she looked down letting her bangs cover her eyes.

Mireille could almost feel her partner's crushing emotional pain, "You know you don't have to keep it all in, you can talk to me about it. Kikira I want you to know that I... I think of you as... well I've never trusted anyone like I trust you. You could tell me anything, and I would never judge you." She stopped a moment to think about how to word her next thought. "I've never felt such a strong bond to another person like the bond we share." Mireille watched Kikira for any reaction, she desperately wanted to Kikira to understand what she was saying.

Kikira looked at her partner and said "I'm so sorry... I'm sorry Mireille." Silent tears begin streaming down her cheeks "I'll try to be more open with you, you've given me so much... and I just…" she sobbed as she put her head back on her knees.

Mireille got up from the foot of the bed and walked around to her partner. "It's okay, we should be safe for now, you should sleep. I promise if anything happens I'll wake you." She grabbed the pill bottle off the nightstand and gave Kikira two of the pain pills, "by the look in your eyes you won't get any sleep if you don't take these. We can talk tomorrow about what happened." Kikira simply nodded her head and downed the pills with one gulp of water. Mireille helped her change into a clean set of her sleep clothes and tucked her into bed. She went to her computer chair and gingerly sat down and spun the chair around to watch her partner. _'I wonder what else she remembered...'_ Mireille mused as she watched Kikira slowly drift into sleep. She watched her for a time wishing that they could just be left alone. With Kikira she had found a peace that she had never known before, a type of tranquility that she couldn't get from any person or place. _'Well enough of the warm fuzzy thoughts, let's see what Chris knows about all of this.' _She thought as she took one last look at Kikira and silently left the room.

Mireille found Chris in the sitting room where she had left him; James was sitting across from him staring at him, no guarding him like he was some type of prisoner.

"James, why don't you go clean yourself up, you still have a little blood on the side of your face, I want to have a little chat with Chris in privet." Mireille said while motioning for Chris to follow her. James got up and locked eyes with Mireille. She could see the unspoken question 'are you sure about this?' With an almost imperceptible nod Mireille signaled that it would be okay. James walked off to another section of the house and Mireille led Chris to the kitchen. They sat down at the table across reach other and neither spoke for several seconds.

"Okay for starters, who are you." Mireille said as she leaned back in her seat.

Mireille had a lot to think about as she walked through the house to find James, she learned a great many things while talking to Chris. That he knew Kikira from the Manor, and he was one of her trainers very early on. When Mireille asked about the Manor and why he wasn't there he surprised her. "Altena was a very bad person." He said, "I didn't like what she was doing to Kikira, or any of the other girls, but when I tried to help Kikira they shot me. I was lucky because grandpa took me in and cared for my wounds, he saved me." Mireille thought about how she had saved Kikira from Altena's dark hell, _'so he escaped from Altena, but the roots of the Soldats are wrapped around him so tight all he can do now is hide.'_ Mireille thought to herself.

She had also asked him about his miraculous appearance just when they were in trouble. He had said that he knew to come to this house, at this time because his grandfather had given him a letter saying that Kikira was in trouble. He also told her what little he knew about the faction of the Soldats that were after them; they were one of the more dangerous fringe groups. The information he was told stated that they used modern tactics and didn't follow the old code of the Soldats. They were also very selective, only taking their members from ex-military backgrounds. The best guess anyone could make was that they were based out of Austria but Chris had said they weren't sure about that.

She turned a corner into a study and found James talking with his wife. "Well, Chris isn't a threat to us or you" Mireille said while easing herself down into a chair after the couple finished their conversation.

Lauren looked over with concern, "Mireille dear, are you okay, you didn't get hurt did you?"

Mireille grimaced as she lifted herself from the chair and walked over to the 

couple, she gingerly lifted her shirt to expose her stomach, "could you check on my right side, I think they might have cracked a rib."

James nodded and motioned for Mireille to sit on the desk, "This is going to hurt a bit." he said as he began to examine the contusions covering her ribs. He was quick and tried to make the examination as painless as possible. "I don't think you broke anything; just take some Ibuprofen for the pain, it should be ok in a few days." He said as he gently pulled her shirt down covering the still tender bruises.

Lauren had never seen so many bruises so close together; she looked at Mireille and asked "What on earth happened, what gave you that many bruises?"

Mireille looked over to Lauren with a thoughtful look on her face, "I did somthing stupid; I went walking in the dark without my light and fell down."

James looked at Mireille; she was sitting on the edge of the desk looking lost in her own thoughts when he broke the silence. "I called the cleaners and they should be here soon. A few of them are good friends of mine and told me they would deliver anything that might be helpful to us later tonight." James said as he got up. He started to walk toward one of bookcases that covered the walls of the room absently caressing a random book "Mireille, you know we can't stay here now that they know your location. We need to find some place safe to stay as soon as possible."

Mireille turned her attention back to James "I don't think they'll be back for a few days. When I talked to Chris he told me that they had a limited number of combat teams. Most likely they'll hold back a few days and regroup. In any case I don't think they're going to do anything too drastic, they want us alive after all."

James sunk back into his office chair thinking, he leaned forward and started typing on his laptop, "okay, we can stay the night here but I'm going to call a few friends to stay with us. If we're lucky all three of them will be nearby and can be here before midnight." James said as he heaved a heavy sigh. "And about that boy, what are we going to do with him?"

"I'd like him to spend the night he could, when Kikira wakes up she might want to talk to him." Mireille said as she tried to stifle a huge yawn. Mireille saw James giving her a surprised look. "What? I don't know what it is but there's something about him that makes me think that he might have a good idea of what's going on and on top of that I don't think he would do anything to harm us."

James gave her a skeptical look, "if he's going to stay he has to stay in the recovery ward down in the basement, that way we'll know if he tries to leave."

Mireille was shifting on her feet; it was becoming uncomfortable to stand, the bruises across her back and stomach hurt. That and having so much happen in 

such a small amount of time made her head hurt. She looked toward the hallway that would lead to her room, she was also worried about Kikira. She waved her hand at James dismissing matter, "Do what you think needs to be done, but please treat him as a guest. He saved my life and didn't try to hurt any of us. Let's wait until Kikira wakes up to see what we are going to do with him." She brought her hands up and rubbed her temples, "I'm going to get some sleep, and it's been a long day. If anything happens ring my cell."

James watched as the blond Corsican made her way out of the room, _'she's definitely changed'_ he thought to himself _'much more trusting now, almost too trusting'_. He picked up his cell phone and started dialing the number to get some protection for the night. Maybe tomorrow he could sit down with the two young assassins and get the full story on this Chris character.

Mireille wearily opened the door to her room and quietly made her way in and locked the door behind her. She looked over toward the bed and saw that Kikira had retrieved her gun; it was lying next to her on the bed. She sighed pulling her own weapon out and loading a fresh magazine, it was no time to get sloppy. She made her way to the bathroom and took two Ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet. She closed the door so as to not wake her partner and took a short shower. After toweling off she put on her customary sleep clothes; a white button-down shirt and a pair of underwear then made her way to the bed. She stared at the ceiling thinking of everything that had happened and the repercussions that those events would have. They would need to find some place to plan their next course of action, some place that would be relatively safe from the Soldats. She cut off that train of thought, she needed to sleep and not worry about that right now. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her mind, she concentrated on her surroundings; the feeling of the smooth cotton sheets on her fingertips, the unique smell of the room, the sound of Kikira sleeping next to her. She concentrated on her partners breathing, her body unconsciously matched Kikiras breath for breath. Just as Mireille was about to fall asleep she felt a twitch from her partner and noticed that she wasn't breathing anymore. Mireille cracked her eyes open and turned toward Kikira and what she saw frightened her. Kikira was lying perfectly still, her body was rigid and her face was covered in sweat. Her mouth worked soundlessly trying to gasp for breath without ever taking any in. Mireille leaned over and touched Kikira shoulder trying to rouse partner from whatever nightmare she was having.

"Kikira..." she whispered quietly trying to wake her young partner up without startling her "Kikira, wake up" she said in a louder tone. Kikiras eyes snapped open but her body stayed rigid as she gasped for air. Her eyes darted around the room as if looking for phantom attackers; Mireille leaned in and caught the young girl's attention. Her breathing slowed as she looked up at her partner, the Corsican was a source of peace for her, a person who sheltered her.

Mireille had gotten worried when Kikiras eyes snapped open, she looked extremely frightened, and she knew from experience that when you feel cornered and frightened people don't act rationally. Then their eyes locked and Kikira calmed down immediately, taking several deep breaths she sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Are you okay, do you want some water?" Mireille asked.

"I'm fine Mireille, just a nightmare about my past." Kikira said quietly as she turned away from Mireille and pulled her knees up to her chest. She was so tired it hurt, even with the prescription painkillers pushing her toward sleep she fought to stay awake. She couldn't get the nightmare out of her head, the darkness that hung in the room at this early hour didn't help her situation. She didn't want to think about that room, but it was the only thing she could think of. She remembered that it was dark, quiet too, and cold. It was what Athena had termed "The mind training room". She could feel her body involuntarily shake with fear just thinking about it. Then she felt arms wrapping around her as Mireille slid closer to her, pulling her into an embrace. Immediately all of her fears evaporated like smoke on the wind. Kikira just lay there enjoying the presence of the only person she trusted, the only person she would probably ever trust. Mireille didn't say anything; she didn't need to, Kikira new that no comforting words could be better than her partners embrace. Even without words she still knew what her partner was thinking, Mireille just wanted her to be able to have a peaceful night's sleep, she often said that sleep and dreams should be an escape from the harsh realities of the world, not a terrifying prison of nightmares that you were trapped in every night. Even though she had never told Mireille the blond had to have known that the nights they slept close to each other, not just in the same bed but physically touching, the nightmares never came. Sometimes she didn't dream at all, and sometimes she dreamt of what it would be like to be normal; just her and Mireille living in Paris, going shopping and living the rest of their lives and not worrying about the Soldats.

Kikira wiggled lower in the bed putting the top of her head under Mireille's chin; 

her partner shifted slightly and fell back asleep. Kikira could always tell when her partner was sleeping, even though she would never tell Mireille, because it might embarrass the blond, her partner had a very quiet snore every few breaths. Kikira gave a huge yawn and closed her eyes as sleep quickly overcame her.

* * *

**Authors Notes:**

Sorry for the short chapter, not only did I have a wicked case of writers block while I was writing this but I was also wrapped up in watching "Black Lagoon" and "Withchblade". I should have the next chapter done relatively quickly if I don't get caught up in another anime.

By the way still looking for a beta reader (and somebody to bounce ideas off of when I get writers block) if you're interested PM me.


	6. Chapter 6 Cold Eyed Comfort

**Disclaimer:**

The characters of Mireille Bouquet, Kirika Yumura and others from the anime 'Noir' are neither owned by me nor are my original creations. These characters are based on the original anime series by Ryoe Tsukimura.

Other characters presented within are entirely my own and any resemblances to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The same goes for described locations and settings.

This will be rated "T" for the time being just to be safe, ratings may change as the story unfolds.

"Speaking"

'_Internal first person'_

**Written note or email**

**

* * *

**

Chapter 6

**Cold Eyed Comfort**

**

* * *

**Both assassins woke to the sound of soft knocking, Mireille bolted upright gun in hand as Kirika swept her gun out from under the covers and smoothly rolled away from Mireille. Both had their guns trained on the door and waited motionless. James' soft voice sounded through the door, "girls, 9 a.m. last call for breakfast". Mireille fell back on the bed like a puppet with its strings cut, she hadn't felt so stiff and sore in a very long time. She gingerly rolled over and put her gun on the nightstand as she tried to untangle her legs from the sheets. Every movement was a stiff, burning, torment; she would need to take another hot shower, and more painkillers. She looked toward Kirika to see what type of mood she was in. She was sitting on the edge of the bed looking around the room. Mireille felt a cold shiver run down her spine, her partner wasn't acting right, she watched as Kirika got up from the edge of the bed and walked around the room, as if inspecting it. When she got to the table she looked at the Glock in her hand and put it down on a rag near a few boxes of ammo; then she looked back at Mireille.

Mireille was frozen in place; the foggy aftereffects of sleep were blasted from her mind by fear as she looked into Kirika's eyes. The eyes that stared back at her no longer looked innocent, they were the eyes of the True Noir; the eyes that she had seen when Kirika tried to kill her at the Manor. They were blank, cold conveying a crushing sense of the calculated, controlled violence that was leashed inside of the girls' small frame. Mireille could only watch as Kirika approached her and stopped at the end of the bed. Then Kirika did something totally unexpected, a small smile crept onto her face. Not the type of smile that would convey happiness, it was smug… it was the type of smile that said 'I was right all along'.

Kirika had woken with a start; someone had come by and knocked on their door. Her other half didn't seem concerned after hearing the voice of the man on the other side and fell back into bed so she relatively sure it was safe, and if not she had a weapon. She sat on the edge of the bed took stock of her current accommodations. Comfort meant nothing to her in reality but the room looked easy to secure, a single door leading out with another that looked like it lead to a bathroom. The only window in the room was well away from the bed and at such an angle that it would be difficult to pull shot off from outside and hit a target in the most frequented parts of the room. She got up to examine her surroundings more closely; the door looked like it was made of solid wood; sturdy enough to be semi-bulletproof, looking in the bathroom she saw that it had all the modern amenities French villa. She walked over to the table and saw a neat stack of full boxes of 9 mm ammunition and a several full magazines. She looked down at the gun in her hand, it wasn't her old Beretta but a newer model Glock, she gently put it down on the table. She turned and looked at her other half, the one that she'd saved from Chloe. _'So my choice was correct' _she thought to herself, _'if I had let Chloe live she wouldn't have been able to carry out the final trial, I probably would've had to kill her anyway after killing Altena'_. Even though she'd tried to make the choice without any emotional interference she still couldn't help but think that her other self had something to do with it. She smiled because Mireille was a strong woman; she would have to be to have survived her own set of trials and end up being one of the final three. Thinking back Mireille was her first choice as far back as when they had tried to retrieve the Langumal Manuscript with Chloe. She had tried to make Mireille see the power of Noir by fighting alongside Chloe; even though Chloe presumed call herself "The True Noir" Kirika never felt connected enough to truly trust her. She came back to the present and looked back toward her other half, Mireille was still staring at her, watching her every move. She closed the distance between them was slow steps and reached out caressing Mireille's cheek from ear to chin with two fingers.

"Do you want to take a shower first, or should I?" Kirika asked in an oddly soft voice.

Mireille watched as Kirika closed the distance between them and reached out and touched her face. It took all her self-control not to recoil away from her young partner's touch. When Kirika's fingers made contact she could suddenly feel what was going on behind those blank eyes. What she could understand now was that Kirika seemed to be satisfied with her current situation, maybe even happy, with Mireille being her partner. It was almost as if the feeling of contentment had turned into a tactile sensation and was sliding down her skin. It actually made her calm down and took the edge off of what she thought might be a potentially dangerous situation. Mireille looked into her partner's eyes again; they weren't the same dead eyes that she remembered at the Coliseum. They had something else now, an echo of the Kirika she knew, a kind of innocence softness behind them.

"Uhh..." Mireille stuttered not knowing what to say.

"You should take a shower first; I think it would help to clear your mind. I'll just lie down for a while and wait for you to finish before I go in." Said Kirika as she reached down and helped Mireille up off the bed and lead her to the shower.

Mireille stumble a few times, but with Kirika's help she made it to the bathroom without falling. She was still concerned about what was going on, but didn't want to deal with that until she got a shower and could actually move without every part of her body aching. She had been sore after fights before, but you never get used to the feeling the day after a good beating. Mireille thought about it for a moment as she adjusted the shower, it felt like a full body hangover; complete with so much pain that it could actually make you nauseous. After taking some time soaking in the hot shower she worked out most of the kinks in her back, she dried her hair then cracked the door open to see what Kirika was doing. It looked like Kirika was lying on the bed sleeping; _'but which Kirika? The one I know or Noir... or combination of the two'_ Mireille thought to herself. She quietly made which the dresser and then stopped to watch her partner; she was lying on her side facing away from Mireille. She dropped her towel and quickly pulled some clothes on, she looked back to check on Kirika and saw that she hadn't moved. She half wondered what she was doing, she had changed in front of Kirika before, and nudity never seemed to bother either of them. No it wasn't that she had a sudden attack of modesty, it was that Mireille didn't know if it was her Kirika or Noir lying on the bed. Mireille fought the urge to pick up her gun and instead sat on the end of the bed and studied Kirika.

Kirika awoke when Mireille sat on the edge the bed and immediately knew something was wrong. She had a strange sense of missing something.

"Mireille, did I do something... that I don't remember?" She asked as she sat up and let her legs hang off the edge of the bed. It had been quite some time since she had felt the odd sensation of losing time that usually accompanied the emergence of her other self, it still scared her.

Mireille locked eyes with her young partner for a moment before answering. "Not really, you just asked if I wanted to take a shower first." She thought for a moment wondering if telling Kirika that her other self had come out would actually help when another thought crossed her mind. She got up off the bed and sat down next to Kirika.

"Kirika, I want you to touch my cheek..." she suddenly realized how utterly strange her request must sound and wondered if Kirika might think she had finally gone insane. She was surprised when Kirika took two fingers and stroked her cheek from ear to chin, exactly mimicking her other self. The sensation Mireille felt was different this time though; instead of contentment she felt confusion, fear of rejection, and a tiny sliver of hope. Again she felt it as a strange tactile sensation that slid down her body, though this time it was strong enough that it made her slightly dizzy.

Kirika watched as Mireille sat next to her on the bed and was only slightly surprised when her partner asked her to touch her cheek. As soon as her hand started toward Mireille's face she had an odd sense of déjà vu. As her fingers made contact and she gently slid them down Mireille's cheek she caught odd flashes of memory of her doing exactly this to Mireille sometime in the past. Just as that happened to Kirika had an overwhelming sensation of being exposed, not in the physical sense but as if Mireille could see straight down into the core of who she was, as if everything she had ever done was laid bare for her partner to see. She was gripped by fear so sharp that she ripped her hand away as if she had touched something hot.

Kirika had gotten off the bed and would have asked what was going on but Mireille jumped off the bed and crushed Kirika's head into her chest. Mireille then forced her young partner onto the bed as the window near the desk shattered. She had just enough time to completely cover most of Kirika's body with her own when the flash bang went off.

Mireille couldn't hear anything; it was as if the world was mute, her vision swam with streamers of color from the concussive shock of the flash bang. After the second it took the collect herself she quickly rolled off of Kirika and scrambled toward cover. Kirika lifted herself and rolled across the bed toward Mireille's nightstand hoping she could retrieve her partners' gun before whoever had thrown the flash bang gained entry into the room. Kirika had a moment of crystal-clear vision the kind that seems to slow everything down. She could see her hand reaching for the gun, her back smacked against the wall as she tried to bring the gun to the other hand and chamber a round. She looked up toward the window and saw a man dressed like the ones that had attacked them yesterday both of his feet on the window sill, one hand steadying himself as his other hand swept the room with a submachine gun.

_' I'm not to make it.' _ She screamed in her own mind as the submachine gun had nearly completed its arc and started lining up on her body. Suddenly the back of the man's head exploded in a red mist of blood and gore, he fell from his perch on the window sill and collapsed heavily to the floor. Kirika quickly dashed along the wall ducking under the window and retrieved her gun from the table and looked back toward Mireille. Her partner quickly made her way to the other side of the window and retrieved her gun. They looked at each other quickly scanned outside, two people lay dead almost directly under the window. Kirika heard running from the hallway and quickly covered the door, Mireille did the same even though she couldn't hear anything. Kirika heard James yelling through the door asking if they were all right when nobody answered immediately she heard him say "break it down!" Kirika quickly scooted toward her partner and pushed her gun down. The door blew inward and the largest man either assassin had ever seen stood crouched on top of it sweeping the room with a shotgun. The only reason Kirika didn't fire on him was because he purposely kept the aim of his shotgun high and away from their bodies, the man was professional. Another man appeared near the doorway not as big as the first but he was still tall lean and muscular, he swept the room with his eyes keeping his pistol pointed upwards and quickly moved toward the bathroom door and covered the window. James crouched low to the ground stuck his head around the door and quietly asked if they were all right. Kirika whispered that a sniper took out the men coming into the window and two more outside. The large man with a shotgun move further into the room and away from the window and the man in the bathroom motioned with his free hand for everyone to get out of the room. Mireille and Kirika quickly move to the table collected all their equipment and holsters and were about to exit the room when they heard a burst of submachine gunfire. They pushed away from each other Kirika rolled into the bathroom and Mireille near the man with the shotgun, everyone was aiming at the window. They could hear strange voice from outside the window "sniper... sniper by the guesthouse..." the man took a rattling breath and coughed heavily, "two people, possibly a sniper and a spotter. I'm wounded and need backup" the sound of bullets hitting flesh cut the man short and all was quiet. The man in the bathroom quickly motioned everyone out the room again; as soon as everyone was out he took point and started moving toward the kitchen. As they rounded the corner into the kitchen Mireille saw four more dead bodies, looking further into the room she saw Chris holding a silenced pistol covering the kitchen door. Chris looked over to them gave her a brief nod and smile and started backing up toward the basement. James broke the silence by telling everyone to get down the stairs. As they went down the stairs the two men covered their escape. James closed the door to the basement and punched a button on the key pad near the door and a quiet click could be heard as the door locked. Only then did Kirika touch Mireille's arm and ask if she was okay. Mireille's ears were still ringing as she looked down at her young partner and saw the eyes she looked into were the eyes of Noir, but this time she wasn't scared at all but oddly comforted as she nodded that she was okay.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **

**Important please read!**

wow...almost a whole year since I've updated... but I have a good reason let me explain. Most of that time was spent looking for a job (because I was unemployed) looking for a new place to live (because me and my wife might need to move closer to my imaginary new job) and finally the last two months have been spent starting up my own business (yay for me!).

My new business is going to be dealing with laser engraving and cutting with a new state-of-the-art CNC 65 Watt laser table. I can engrave anything from stainless steel to paper!

Well enough about me about my excuses and on to the story and my update frequency.

I'm sure quite a few people thought the story was dead, but even when I wasn't writing on it I was still thinking about it. I had to change the entire outline for chapters 7 and 8 because the thought of a better storyline as well as a way to resolve some of the problems I had with one of the main characters. This chapter is kind of short because I had almost forgotten the framework I had laid originally for it but next chapter is going to be way beefier and it's going to get into some action.

I'm going to try to keep it as realistic as possible while throwing in some pseudoscience and maybe even some outright fiction, but I still want to make it as believable as possible without straying too far from the original character profiles. Mostly what I'm going to do is try to explain some of the unexplainable things that happened in the series as well as add slightly to the history and origins of Noir.

By the way still looking for a beta reader (and somebody to bounce ideas off of when I get writers block) if you're interested PM me.


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